Box Score
The Bruin faithful said goodbye to four key seniors who played their last game in the Davis Field House on Tuesday night in the Bruins 60-44 win over Columbia International University. "Defense wins championships and so it was nice for us to play a great defensive game like this heading into the regional playoffs," Coach LeViere said. "These seniors are the cornerstone of what we've built our program on. More importantly, they are such great people off the court. They are ferocious competitors and the kind of girls we want to be in our program and that we're proud to have."

 

The Bruins came into the game having won 7 of their last 8 games with many of those in tough wins on the road. The team returned home to battle Columbia International University. The two teams met earlier this month, with the Bruins coming away with a narrow 69-60 win in Columbia, South Carolina. Despite the victory, the Bruins were outrebounded and had to battle back to steal the win on the road. They were determined to improve in several areas as they took the floor on Tuesday night. 

Both teams traded baskets in the early minutes with neither able to establish a consistent lead. The Bruins were able to use impressive post play from Brianna Delaney and Kendra Jeffcott to muscle their way for points in the paint. The team rallied behind an 11-0 run to jump out to a lead thanks to Kendra Jeffcott's back to back three point plays. At the end of one, the Bruins led 18-12. 

In the second quarter, the Bruins came out strong with back to back baskets as Brianna Delaney scored buckets on the inside and Sarah Thomsen and Sha'Ron Brunson rained threes from the outside to give the Bruins a 27-13 advantage. The team continued to pour it on with back to back threes from Delaney and Sydney Bedsaul as the Bruins took a 38-24 lead into the break. 

"Our rebounding and defense was as good as its ever been in that first half," Coach LeViere said. "The game flows from that and if we're on defensively than that flows into our offense and it all feeds off each other to keep the train going."

As the second half began, the Bruins continued to work the ball inside for points while playing suffocating defense to keep the lead. The Rams refused to quit and tried to chip away at the Bruins lead. Still, the Bruins matched the Rams bucket for bucket as they continued to execute offensively to take a 50-36 lead into the final quarter. 

With one quarter to go, the Bruins put the pedal to the floor offensively as they came roaring out of the gate to start the quarter and increase their lead to 56-36 behind a three from Sarah Thomsen. The Bruins continued to dominate the glass defensively and used the transition game to generate open looks to score. With the game well in hand, Coach LeViere gave the seniors one final curtain call as Kendra Jeffcott, Maggi Ford, Julia Wright and Brianna Delaney all exited the game behind a roar of cheers from the crowd. As the final buzzer sounded, the Bruins had captured a 60-44 home win. 

"These four years have just been awesome and I have loved every minute of it," Bruins' senior captain Kendra Jeffcott said. "I couldn't have asked for a better coach and I couldn't imagine playing anywhere else." 

Brianna Delaney led the Bruins with 14 points and 14 rebounds and Kendra Jeffcott added 13 points and 15 boards. Jeffcott surpassed 1,000 rebounds for her career to go along with 1,347 career points. The Bruins outrebounded the Rams 55-44 as the team finishes the regular season at 19-11. The Bruins will have some time off as the team prepares for the regional playoffs in a few weeks. Final seeding for the tournament will be announced at a future date. Stay tuned to bjubruins.com for the latest seeding information.