The Bob Jones University women's basketball team made their way to North Carolina Friday evening where they fell in a close 66-70 exhibition to Brevard College.
"I don't like "moral victories" or talking about "shoulda woulda coulda" but this game was a really good example of those for us," said Head Coach Mike LeViere. "Our team came to Brevard short handed with only eight players, and we really showed up. It's so fun to watch this group and so exciting to think about how good they are right now and the improvement that is continuing to happen."
The Bruins entered today's contest 4-5 on the year after a big home win against Wesleyan College on Monday. Friday's game marked the second meeting between the two programs this season with the Brevard College Tornados picking up the win earlier this year in the Davis Field House.
As today's game got under way in North Carolina, Jenna Brooks opened the scoring with an early three pointer to get the Bruins on the board first before Brevard responded with a three of their open. It remained close early on, but soon the Tornados began to pull ahead 14-9. The Bruins battled back to tie it in the final seconds at 14 points each off of a three-point basket by Faith Hayward.
The Bruins sank their first points of the second quarter courtesy of a another three-pointer by Brooks to see the Bruins regain the slight 17-16 lead. As Anna Layne Wylder made her way to the basket, she was fouled to make her way to the free throw line for the first time for the Bruins. After making both her baskets she put the Bruins on top 21-16 to improve their 12-2 run. In the second ten minutes of play, Bob Jones outscored Brevard 20-12 and led the Tornados 34-26 heading into halftime.
As Brevard worked to cut into the Bruins lead in the early minutes of the third quarter, a jumper by Keely Price followed by a deep three by Wylder pulled the Bruins back into a nice eight-point lead. After extending their lead to 10 points with four minutes remaining in the quarter, the Tornados capitalized in the final minutes of third to close it out with back-to-back free throws to see the Bruins lead by just one 48-37 heading into the final quarter.
Brevard quickly took the lead to open the final quarter, but it didn't last long as Brooks hit her fourth three-pointer of the contest. Pace of play picked up as both teams worked to close out the contest. With just under two minutes to play, Brevard took the nine point advantage. Trump closed out the game with a layup followed by a made free throw in the final seconds. At the final buzzer, it was Brevard on top 70-66 to take the win.
Four Bruins finished the contest in double figures with Kayley Trump leading the way with 18. Jenna Brooks led the Bruins with four of the team's 11 three-point shots where the finished 36.7%.
Following the exhibition, Coach LeViere said, "usually we are talking about how they out rebounded us and we need to get to the line more, or sometimes our shots don't fall, but tonight we did a great job in a lot of areas. We made more free throws than they shot. We shot 37% from the three-point line while they shot 31%, and we out rebounded them by a good margin."
"Our improvement in doing little things like boxing out is starting to show results. The team worked super hard, and they are starting to reward themselves for that work."
Up next, the Bruins go on the road for a Thursday night contest in Tennessee against Sewannee.
