Bridgewater, Va. –  On Feb.16, the men’s basketball team traveled down I-81 to face the Hornets of Shenandoah University in their regular season road finale showdown. The Eagles came up short and fell by a score of 84-74.

The Hornets kicked things off by winning the tip and pushing for a layup in transition by senior forward Deondre McNeill. Shenandoah continued their hot start with back-to-back made jumpers from senior guard Jaylen Williams to give the Hornets a 6-0 lead, forcing the eagles to use their first timeout of the game. 

BC finally got in on the scoring at the 16:59 mark in the first half with a successful three-point jumper from sophomore forward Alec Topper. After failing to get a stop on the next two defensive possessions, Topper would take it to the basket himself for an easy layup and put the Eagles back within five. 

Both teams continued to trade blows all throughout the first half. Junior guard Liam Caswell caught fire for the Eagles by hitting some nice pull up jumpers – while scoring 13 of the Eagles 36 first half points. 

The Hornets and Eagles both shot over 50 percent from the floor in the first half of play with Shenandoah sitting at 51.4% and BC shooting 53.8%. Even with the shots falling for the Eagles, they trailed by five going into the break by a score of 41-36. 

Shenandoah came out of the half firing on all cylinders and taking a 48-38 with a couple of big time plays from Williams. Just when it looked like the Hornets were going to run away with it, the Bridgewater Eagles came screaming back. The first-year guard Shod Smith started the comeback with a steal and transition dunk to fire up the Eagles bench.

Smith had some help from sophomore guard Zach Hatter when he converted on a three-point jumper to tie the game at 56 with 8:54 left to play. 

BC continued to fight back, but would ultimately run out of gas. The Eagles were unable to keep up with Shenandoah’s hot second half shooting. Bridgewater ended up losing 84-74. 

Bridgewater was led by Caswell’s 20 points, while both Hatter and Smith poured in 17 each in the losing effort. On the other side, the Hornets were led by William’s 20 points and McNeil’s game high 24 points. 

Bridgewater now sits at 9-14 and 5-10 in the ODAC, while Shenandoah finishes 4-20 and 3-12 in the ODAC. The Eagles will now look to finish the regular season on a high note with the finale coming on Saturday, Feb. 19 – where they will host Roanoke.