In their final home game of 2022, the Bob Jones University women's basketball team fell 56-47 to the Pfeiffer University Falcons at the Davis Field House in Greenville, South Carolina. With today's result, the Bruins have fallen to 5-6 overall this season and now sit at 2-2 from home.
"I'm disappointed," said Head Coach Mike LeViere. "It wasn't one of our better games. Our defense was pretty good tonight, but we struggled offensively. I like to talk positively, but it was hard to find positives on the offensive side tonight."
He continued by saying, "we seemed to be off. It was the final day of exams so there was a lot of academic stress over the last few days and it is hard to come out and be focused."
BJU entered today's game after a loss to Johnson & Wales University last week. Pfeiffer saw themselves on a five game losing streak coming into Thursday's game. Their last game came on December 6 as they fell 78-63 to Greensboro College.
The Bruins and Falcons met for the first time in program history earlier this season on November 15 where Bob Jones picked up their first win of the season with a 72-69 score.
Just over a minute into tonight's contest, the Falcons went to the free throw line to put up their first two points of the game. After the Falcons went up 4-0, Shea Dickinson made a layup and earned a spot at the line to get the Bruins within one. The two teams continued battling and after the first 10 minutes of play, the Bruins were down 14-13.
It was a back and forth effort to start the second quarter with both teams exchanging buckets. As Tamrah Konieczka knocked one down from the top of the key, the Bruins would be within two points with six and a half minutes remaining. The Falcons pulled away to an eight point lead heading into halftime.
After the break, the Falcons continued their scoring run with a three-pointer to give them their first double digit lead of the night. Bethany Daulton broke the nine minute scoring drought for the Bruins with a layup to get the Bruins back to a single digit deficit. At the end of the third quarter, it was Pfeiffer leading 44-30.
As the gap widened, the Bruins didn't give up still looking for a way to claw their way back. Catherine Skebo drained a three-pointer for the Bruins to get the scoring going in the final quarter. With five minutes remaining, the Falcons led 52-37. Konieczka cut the lead down to just nine points after sinking a three-pointer from the corner. In the final seconds she made both of her free throws to keep the deficit at single digits, but it wasn't enough as struggles from the offensive side saw the Bruins fall 56-47.
"The ladies work super hard and I have never questioned their effort. They put in the effort defensively, but didn't reward themselves on offense," said LeViere. "We'll watch film and come into practice tomorrow with some solutions of the problems tonight."
The Bruins look to get back in the winning column as they make the trip to Sewanee, Tennessee where tol take on the Sewanee Tigers Saturday afternoon for a 1 p.m. tip-off.
