In a back and forth game, the Lady Bruins came up short as the Trinity College Tigers scored a last-second basket to steal a 68-67 victory over BJU in the Davis Field House on Friday night. The team falls to 10-13 on the season while suffering their first region loss of the season to move to 5-1 in conference play. 

"We somehow weren't ready, and that's on me," Bruins Head Coach Mike LeViere said. "Maybe we were taking them too lightly, but they're really athletic and they showed that tonight."

The potential for an exciting game existed from the start. Trinity College played a quick style game capitalizing on breakaways. The Bruins fought back with a strong defense getting rebound after rebound. Both teams stayed close in the first half with neither team earning a big break. The two teams ended the half tied at 33-33. 

Sydney Bedsaul shot a three-pointer to jumpstart the second half for the Bruins as the team came out with a 9-0 run. Amanda Bates helped out underneath the net grabbing the rebounds and going up strong to score. The fast paced game caused fumbling and fouls from both teams, and the Bruins struggled to stay strong. Turnover after turnover allowed the Tigers to come back and take the lead finishing the third quarter with a score of 53-49.

The Bruins came out in the 4th quarter looking to climb back into the game. Hannah Tompkins scored off of a breakaway and Kylee Leffew had back-to-back rebounds and scored two points helping the Bruins shorten their deficit 60-58. As the game began to draw to a close, the two teams went back and forth with victory on the line. But the Tigers played strong defense and scored key baskets to stretch the lead to 66-60 with just over 2 minutes left in the game.

The Bruins weren't ready to give up as Amanda Bates got a steal and Sarah Thomsen scored three points to shorten the Tigers lead to three with 1:22 on the clock. Moments later Sha'Ron Brunson shot another three to tie up the score 66-66. It seemed there was a thread of hope! Tompkins received foul shots and made one giving the Bruins a lead 67-66. With just 20 seconds remaining, the Bruins had a costly turnover giving the Tigers one last shot. Elation turned to devastation as the Bruins allowed the Tigers to score as Trinity College won the game 68-67.

"The worst losses are the ones in which you walk away and say 'We should've won.' And this is one of those," Coach LeViere said. "We had 27 turnovers tonight. You're not going to win a game against a decent opponent with 27 turnovers."

Sydney Bedsaul led the team with 17 points while Sha'Ron Brunson finished with 12. Amanda Bates led the team in rebounds grabbing a total of 11.

"Effort was there, but the execution numbers across the board were rough," LeViere said. "We can look at the stats and see why we lost, but ultimately we just weren't ready."

Next up, the Bruins will be on the road tomorrow afternoon as the team plays Columbia International University in Columbia, South Carolina.