The Bruins dropped their first game of 2022 as they fell 62-75 against Warner University in Lake Wales, Florida. Three players scored in the double digits this afternoon, with Freshman Annie Miller leading the way with 17 points. After today's game, the Bruins have fallen to 5-8 on the season.
"This was a good game for us coming off the break and Warner University was really good test for us," said Head Coach Mike LeViere. "We fought back from an early deficit to take the lead, but then made some mistakes that turned into a 10-0 run for them going into the half, and we just could never string together the stops we needed to get back in the game."
The Bruins entered today's game after the Christmas break with their last game coming on December 16 against USC Upstate while the Royals came off of a win against Brescia University (KY) on December 29. It was a slow start to the game, but Bethany Daulton would sink a three-pointer to get the Bruins on the board and cut the Royals lead to just three points. The Royals slowly increased their lead throughout the first quarter, but the Bruins continued to battle and in the final seconds of the quarter the Bruins would be down by only two points thanks to a three-pointer and a layup by Gracen Ledford.
A layup by Annie Miller kicked off the scoring for the Bruins in the second quarter. The two schools were neck and neck and a three-pointer from Tamrah Konieczka would tie things up halfway through the quarter. The Bruins would see their first lead of the game shortly after a layup by Bailey Green. In the last three minutes before halftime, the Royals would score 10 unanswered points to lead 40-31 at the half. Konieczka went 3-3 from the three-point line to lead the Bruins with 9 points in the second quarter.
As the two teams came back after halftime, the Bruins fought to close the deficit. Annie Miller led the Bruins with 10 points in the third quarter, but it wasn't enough to close the gap as the Royals gained a 19 point lead at the end of 30 minutes of play.
The Bruins would score 8 straight points to begin the fourth quarter with Tamrah Konieczka getting it started with another three-pointer, her fourth of the game. Bob Jones continued to push in the second half and outscored the Royals 15 points to 9, but it wasn't enough as they fell in a tough loss 62-75.
"As I told the team, we made mistakes and since they're a good team, they took advantage of every mistake we made. If we forgot to box out, they rebounded and scored. If we didn't match up right away in transition defense, they hit the open person for a layup, and if we didn't defend a screen the right way or closed out wrong, they scored. The positive side of that is that we control those things. We can close out better, we can box out, we can not get beat off the dribble and that will result in eliminating those easy buckets. We're still growing and getting better and this game is another step in getting better. If we can continually be better tomorrow because of what we did today, we're doing something right and eventually we're going to be a really good team."
Annie Miller led the way today with 17 points, with Tamrah Konieczka (12) and Delaney Edwards (10). Edwards also finished with 8 rebounds on the night.
The Bruins are back in Florida on Monday as they take on Trinity Baptist College in their first division game of the season.
