Bridgewater, Va.- The Bridgewater girl’s basketball team hosted Roanoke at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night Jan. 10, in which both teams came in having nine wins during the season and a winning record in the ODAC.
The seats were filled with a lot of students, alumni and families, along with the band and the cheerleading squad playing music and dancing during warm ups as the seats were filling up. The band was active during the warm-ups all the way until tip off with a solo from Bridgewater alum Wyatt Smith on trumpet.
The game started off fast paced with Roanoke taking an early lead in the first quarter. The Eagles could not find a rhythm in the first few minutes of the game, but they then got two quick buckets sparking a run in which the Eagles tied the game at 13, all with just under two minutes left in the first quarter. In the last two minutes, due to some turnovers by the Eagles, Roanoke was able to gain a five point lead going into the second quarter.
The second quarter was tough for the Eagles. They got off to a slow start which showed on defense, with the Eagles giving up non-contested points at the three point line and points inside the paint. This all led to Roanoke taking its biggest lead of the game so far with eight points. At halftime, the Eagles were down by five points.
“We started off pretty slow, and they started scoring a lot of baskets which was unusual because we’re usually the aggressor in games, but tonight it was them,” said senior Jaden Alsberry. ”They packed the inside, not allowing a lot of driving lanes, and we focused on not getting beat to the basket as well as not giving up open perimeter shots, but we allowed them to do so and eat whatever they wanted on offense.”
During halftime, there was a basketball contest for one of the students where if she made a layup, 3 pointer and a free throw in 30 seconds, she would win a 25 dollar gift card. The contest came down to a last second shot which she won.
Quarter three started off with the Eagles not being able to hit shots, not scoring a basket through the first five minutes of the quarter. Roanoke was very aggressive on defense by pressing the defense as soon as the eagles were bringing the ball past half court, making it hard for them to score points. The Eagles had a sign of life of a potential comeback with a big basket coming with just under a minute left in the quarter to close the lead to just seven points.
“I think we were doing fine, but we just didn’t hit shots as a team,” said sophomore Jay Garcia. ”I feel we started off slow and that affected the team defense which led to us being down at halftime, not rotating off defense and giving up points in the paint and the three point line.”
More of the same result as the previous quarters showed for the Eagles, with Roanoke starting to make a run hitting shots while the Eagles started out slow missing shots. This resulted in the biggest lead in the game where the Eagles found themselves down by 18 points as there was less than two minutes left in the game and the eagles losing the game 59-42. The Eagles’ next game is on the road against Randolph-Macon.
