With a second half comeback, the Bruins women's basketball team was able to edge Brevard College at home and pick up their third straight win. With tonight's 66-57 victory, the Bruins have now improved to 5-5 on the season.
"I never have to question our effort. This team works really hard on the court," said Head Coach Mike LeViere. "Sometimes we don't always reward ourselves for our hard work, but I'm pleased that we got the win tonight."
The Bruins came into tonight's game last Saturday's road win against Wesleyan College. Tonight's game marked the second time that Bob Jones and Brevard College have faced off this season with the Tornados coming away with the first win. Coach LeViere said that "tonight's match was almost the exact opposite from our first game against them this season. We put ourselves down early and couldn't catch up until the third quarter."
The Bruins dug themselves into a bit of a hole in the first part of tonight's game as the Tornados. Several turnovers at the end of the 1st quarter would see the Bruins behindas the Tornadoes led 24-12.
As the second quarter got underway, a layup from Delaney Edwards followed by a three-pointer by Bethany Daulton would help the Bruins try to close in on the Tornados' lead. At halftime, the Bruins got within 6 points of Brevard College as Annie Miller would go in the paint for a layup to end the first half 32-39 in favor of the Tornados.
The Bruins got off to a hot start after halftime and went on a seven point run to bring them within one point of the Tornados. As the game continued, the Bruins continued to work on their comeback. In the fourth quarter, Annie Miller sank a three-pointer followed by a layup by Gracen Ledford to give the home team their first lead of the game with 8 minutes remaining. It remained neck and neck between the two squads until Tamrah Konieczka sank a three-pointer with 3:15 left in the game to help the Bruins pull ahead. After a turnover by the Tornados, Gracen Ledford would shoot another three for the Bruins to all but seal the win. The Bruins held strong in the final minutes to win tonight's game 66-57.
Some of the keys to tonight's win? More depth as there were a couple additional players available for tonight's game after coming back after injury. Another key part of tonight's game was the intensity of the play in the third quarter. "We answered the bell and played really good defense. Our attitude, aggressiveness and intelligence on defense improved," said LeViere. "We weren't perfect on offense, but we converted enough and that combined with our good defense got us back in the game."
Four players scored in the double-figures tonight with Delaney Edwards leading the way with 17 points. Tamrah Konieczka recorded 7 rebounds with Delaney Edwards and Gracen Ledford right behind with 5 each.
Looking into this weekend's home games Coach LeViere said that "if we play the first half like we played the second half, we'll be in really good shape. We'll work on being focused and intense from the very beginning."
The Bruins have two games have back to back games this weekend as they host the Bruins Invitational on Friday and Saturday.
