Women’s Basketball 1/30

Bridgewater, Va.-  On Jan. 30, Eagles women’s basketball crushed the Marlins on the road 64-46 after falling short in their last three ODAC games.

Virginia Wesleyan started off strong against the Eagles and scored the first basket of the game to make the score 3-0 in favor of the Marlins. First-year guard Riley Corcoran answered back seconds later to tie the score 3-3.

Both teams traded fouls and rebounds back and forth for the next two and a half minutes. After two successful free throws from the Marlins, the Eagles scored two back-to-back three-pointers; one from Corcoran and the second from junior post Jaden Alsberry.

The Eagles ended the first with a jumper by first-year Jay Garcia to make the score 17-14 heading into the second.

The second quarter started with a two-minute dry period that ended with sophomore guard India Dailey nailing a jumper in the paint. The basket was followed by another two minutes of no scoring from either team. Virginia Wesleyan scored the next four baskets leaving the score at 22-21 in favor of the Marlins.

The Eagles closed the scoring gap by one point as Alsberry secured a layup in the last three seconds of the quarter. The half ended 25-24 in favor of Bridgewater.

Bridgewater used the third quarter to their advantage to pull ahead of the Marlins with exceptional performances by sophomore Abby Branner, who started the takeover with three, and Alsberry with successful two fast breaks. The final score of the third was 43-33 with the Eagles ahead.

The Marlins started off the fourth with two back-to-back baskets, but the Eagles fought back with two separate runs of four. The final points for the Eagles came from a strong jumper in the paint from Garcia which solidified their 64-46 win.

Men’s Basketball 1/28

Bridgewater, Va.- The Bridgewater men’s basketball team defeated Virginia Wesleyan by a score of 54-52 on Saturday afternoon, thanks to some late-game heroics from senior guard Liam Caswell.

Virginia Wesleyan started out hot by scoring eight straight, forcing the hometown Eagles to burn an early timeout. Bridgewater finally got in on the scoring after three minutes with a nice assist from sophomore Shod Smith to graduate student Andy Pack for the three-point jumper.

After trading buckets back and forth, the Eagles put together a run of eight unanswered points. It started with a two-point jumper from sophomore Landon Hawes, which sparked the first-year big man Cooper Hawk to throw down a two-handed jam. Later on, freshman Connor Ballou gave the Eagles their first lead of the game with a made three-point jumper.

Both squads continued to battle before a made basket from Caswell gave Bridgewater a 25-22 lead heading into halftime.

The Eagles came out of the locker room continuing to be successful from behind the arc with threes coming from Pack and sophomore forward Aaron Oates. Bridgewater shot 38.9% from three-point land compared to 18.2% from the Marlins.

After a back-and-forth second half, the Marlins got a layup off resulting in a late-game Marlin lead with 37 seconds left in regulation. The Eagles responded quickly with a drive from Oates to the basket to regain the lead with only 22 seconds remaining. Virginia Wesleyan ran out as much clock as they could before scoring a crushing go-ahead bucket with 11 seconds remaining.

Shod Smith took the inbound pass all the way down the court, driving to the basket before kicking it out to an open Caswell who drained the game-winner from the corner to give the Eagles a 54-52 victory.

“We trusted each other and I knew Shod would make a play, and he found me,” said Caswell. “This was a big win for us because it’s important to hold down the home court in this league.”