Bridgewater, Va. – The Bridgewater College Eagles men’s basketball team went head-to-head with Shenandoah University on Jan. 31 and earned a 97-88 win.

Shenandoah managed control of the jump ball, and scored the first basket of the game – putting them ahead 2-0. The Eagles quickly shut down their lead for the rest of the evening after a jumper by junior Zach Hatter. 

“It’s always hard to win a conference game, but it’s always nice to come out on top,” said Hatter. 

The Eagles continued to show off their skills deep into the first half as first-year Shod Smith swished a three with two seconds left on the shot clock and sophomore Alec Topper continuously spun around defenders for easy layups. 

By working as a team, the Eagles headed into halftime with a 50-34 lead over the Shenandoah Hornets. Senior Andy Pack led the team with 12 points, closely followed by Smith with 11 points and junior Liam Caswell with ten points. 

“We are having really good chemistry. We’re talking, and we’re moving the ball really well,” said sophomore Myliah Brown from the stands. 

The second half started with aggressive jump balls and numerous fouls from both teams as the Eagles racked up 18 points from free throws alone. After the halftime refresher, the Hornets closed in the score to 64-57 Eagles. 

“It was really fast-paced. It usually slows down, but I didn’t see that here. Especially since Shenandoah got into it – which kept the pace,” said spectator first-year JT Francis. 

The Eagles did not allow the Hornets to close the gap and kept a safe score distance. Still on top, Pack scored 12 more points for the Eagles. With swift spins, a dunk and a basket two seconds before the shot clock, Topper continued to be on fire with a gain of 11 points. Followed by Hatter with eight.

“Everyone had a lot of energy, whistle after whistle. The other team played really well, but we played hard and worked really well as a team,” said first-year fan Jude Salisbury. 

With a game score of 92-83, and fouls 10-10, the Eagles pushed until the end. Free throws from Caswell, Smith and first-year Mikey Ayala raised the final score to a win of 97-88 and a record of 8-10. 

“It was a good win. For sure it got a little ugly there in the second half, but we pulled it off. We faced a little bit of adversity, but we pulled it together and came out on top as a team,” said Hatter.