BRIDGEWATER, Va. – The Bridgewater College Women’s Basketball team lost at home 38-67 on Wednesday, Feb. 18 against No. 4 nationally ranked Washington and Lee Generals.
The Eagles were down for the entire game, with Washington and Lee taking a double-digit lead in the first quarter.
Women’s Basketball Head Coach Stephanie Flamini said some of the team’s key players have been battling injuries recently. Senior guard Riley Corcoran played with a hurt wrist, and Aylin Humphreys made her return to game play after breaking her foot in January.
Aylin Humphreys, a junior guard, said that it was a hard game to come back to, but she was excited to be back on the court with everyone.
Flamini said she knew that Washington and Lee was going to be a tough matchup for her team.
“They’re playing at a NCAA level, they’ve been to the NCAA tournament the last four years, and they’ve almost gone to the Final Four a few times,” Flamini said. “They have five seniors, four starting, and they know how to come in and win this time of year.”
Humphreys said that the team didn’t perform as well as they could. She said the team knows how they can play, but they didn’t meet that standard this game.
“During halftime, I remember we came down, and we talked a lot about how our energy needs to be better, our bench energy and our court energy,” Humphrey said. “We need to stop acting like the game is already over.”
The Eagles started the third quarter with an 11-5 run over the Generals to make the score 26-41, but were met with a 9-0 run by the Generals.
Both teams traded points for the remainder of the game, but the Generals continued to pull ahead to a 29-point lead, making the score 38-67.
According to the Bridgewater College Eagles Athletics Website, Senior post Jay Garcia led the Eagles in scoring with 14 points and collected 11 total rebounds. Junior post Jaiden Polston contributed nine points and picked up five rebounds.
“Obviously, that game was very frustrating for us, so now we’re just trying to make sure we don’t drop any games that we need to win,” Humphrey said. “That way, we still have a good ODAC standing and can try to propel ourselves to get into the NCAA tournament.”
Flamini said that in future games, the Eagles need to start out strong and not give up so many points so early.
“We need to take that momentum into the first round of the ODAC tournament,” Flamini said. “We can’t have a bad game and then come back and have a bad game. We’re looking to rebound.”
According to the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Website, the loss is only the fifth overall for the Eagles this season, and their third loss in conference play. They host Hollins at home on Wednesday, Feb. 25, in the ODAC quarterfinals at 7 p.m.
