Box Score
The Lady Bruins cruised to a 69-47 victory over NCCAA regional opponent Trinity Baptist College Eagles on Saturday afternoon in the Davis Field House. The big region win comes less than 24 hours after the Lady Bruins suffered a heartbreaking one point home loss to PCC. "We wanted to push tempo and take care of the ball in this game," Bruins Head Coach Mike LeViere said following the win. "I felt like we had a better bench to bring into the game."
The first quarter started with Amanda Bates scoring the team's first five points. The Eagles, despite taking nearly three and a half minutes to score, answered with a 4-0 run. Sydney Bedsaul scored a three and Sha'Ron Brunson scored to bring the score to 10-4 late in the quarter. The Eagles scored their final points of the quarter when they landed a three, cutting their deficit to 10-7. After Bedsaul made a three point play, Faith Hart knocked down a three and Madison Shupe scored to boost the Lady Bruins to a 17-7 lead at the end of the quarter.
Shupe and Hart both scored to open up the second quarter, extending the Lady Bruins' lead to 21-7. The Eagles scored on their next play, ending an 11-0 BJU run that stretched back to the first quarter. Following another basket by Sha'Ron Brunson, the Eagles scored again to cut the Lady Bruins' lead to 26-11. The Lady Bruins went off again, with Kylee Leffew, Lauren Smith, and Faith Hart scoring seven consecutive points. Now down by 22, the Eagles came back by scoring four in a row, making the score 33-15. Each team would score once more before the end of the half, making the score at halftime 35-17 in favor of the Lady Bruins.
The Lady Bruins' dominance continued in the second half as Sha'Ron Brunson scored twice to increase the Lady Bruins' lead to 39-17. Sarah Thomsen made her first points of the game off a three to make the score 44-21. Both teams exchanged baskets before a basket by Kylee Leffew put the Bruins up 48-24. The Eagles then went on a 5-0 run to cut their deficit down to 48-29. Madison Shupe ended the run with a three, putting the Bruins back up by 22 points at 51-29. The Eagles went on another 5-0 run to end the quarter with a score of 51-34. Despite the lopsided score, the third quarter proved to be the most productive for the Eagles, as they scored 17 points.
Still up by double digits, the Lady Bruins looked to put away the Eagles in the final quarter. Sydney Bedsaul began the final quarter with a three, putting the Lady Bruins back up by 20 at 54-34. The Eagles put together a 7-0 run to trim their deficit to 54-41. Sha'Ron Brunson ended the Eagles run with two consecutive scores of her own, which put the Lady Bruins up 58-41. The Eagles tried to come back but the Bruins' lead was too much to overcome as the BJU won 69-47.
"We just had to focus and create our own energy," Jana Lehman said as she finished with 7 points in the game. "We had to create it and make something happen. From then on, once we got the energy going and I felt like the whole team kind of sparks. You get that spark and we do pretty well."
Sha'Ron Brunson led the Bruins with 13 points while Sydney Bedsaul and Faith Hart also scored double digits with 10 and 11 points respectively. Faith Hart led the team in assists, with 4.
"It was a really great opportunity to work on our defensive positioning, which I felt we did a pretty good job of the entire game." Coach LeViere said. "It's this time into the season when legs start getting tired and we want to make sure we're fresh and playing our best. I honestly feel like we have a great bench. We can bring in some people and we're not dropping off much from our starters and that bodes well for us in the future."
With the win, the Lady Bruins improve to 7-12 overall. For their next game, the Lady Bruins will travel to Columbia International University in Columbia, South Carolina on Tuesday night.
