Bridgewater, Va.- The Bridgewater Eagles men’s basketball squad played host to the Generals of Washington and Lee late Wednesday night. The Generals defeated the Eagles 74-68, dropping Bridgewater to 11-11 overall, and 6-7 in the ODAC. 

Senior guard Liam Caswell led the Eagles on the night coring 16 points, while junior Alec Topper poured in another 14 while grabbing a team-high nine rebounds. The team was propelled by senior Andy Pack and sophomore Shod Smith who chipped in 13 and ten points each. 

Bridgewater fell behind early after the Generals put together a 14-4 run in the opening minutes of the game and trailed 14-6. After trading blows back and forth, Caswell and Pack hit back-to-back three-pointers to make it 19-14 with just under ten minutes to go. The Eagles continued to battle and ended up tying the game at 19-19 with a pair of Pack free throws. 

Washington and Lee found their rhythm again, playing stingy defense and allowing just five points for the Eagles the rest of the half. The Generals went on to take advantage of multiple Bridgewater turnovers in the closing minutes of the first half. They headed into the locker room down 34-24 at the half. 

“We knew we could hang with them, we just needed to quit making stupid mistakes and start playing our brand of basketball that we know how to play,” said Pack.

Bridgewater made all the right adjustments at halftime which led to Topper coming out of the break, sparking the Eagles by scoring five straight points on his own. 

The second half continued the trend from the first, with both teams putting together small scoring runs until BC put together a 12-5 run led by sophomore guard Mikey Ayala, who made a three-point jumper to cut the Generals’ lead to 55-50 with just under nine minutes to play. 

The Eagles got to within three points over the next couple of minutes until Caswell sniped in a three-pointer to tie it up at 64-64 with two minutes on the clock. 

“It was a big shot. Shod made a great play and found me open, and I knew I was going to knock it down,” said Caswell. 

The Generals kept finding ways to score and Bridgewater kept countering until some big offensive rebounds for Washington and Lee led to extra possessions and the game-sealing buckets to give the Generals the 74-68 win. 

W&L out-rebounded the Eagles 48-36 on the night which led to 11 second-chance points. 

Bridgewater will be back in action on Feb. 15 at Shenandoah University in the first of three straight road games to end their regular season campaign before the team prepares for the ODAC tournament.