BRIDGEWATER, Va. – The seventh-seeded Bridgewater College Eagles (9-16) avenged their regular season loss to #10 Emory & Henry College (6-20) with a 76-51 win Monday evening in the first round of the 2014 Old Dominion Athletic Conference Tournament. E&H was playing its fourth road game in eight days, having traveled 1592 miles, the equivalent of a trip from Panama City, Florida to Denver, Colorado.
The contest was neck and neck for the opening six minutes, but the Eagles pulled away late in the half thanks in part to a 7-0 run that made the score 24-12 with 6:57 on the clock. E&H cut the deficit back to single digits but BC scored the final five points of the period for a 38-24 lead at the break.
Bridgewater picked up where it left off early in the second half, scoring the first six points of the frame to push the margin to 20 (44-24) at the 17:25 mark. The road-weary Wasps pushed back to get within 16 points but would get no closer as the Eagles scored 17 of the next 25 points for a 63-38 advantage.
BC would lead by as much as 30 late in the game, but E&H scored seven of the last nine points of the contest to make the final score 76-51.
Bridgewater saw a pair of players notch 21 points and seven rebounds in Heather Cantrell and Molly Shelley. Cassidy Burkholder registered 13 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks while Jessica Lam added 10 points. As a team, the Eagles shot 44.4 percent (28-for-63) from the field and held a 45-33 advantage on the boards.
Emory & Henry was led by sophomore center Amanda Stanley (Mooresville, N.C.), who dumped in a career-high 14 points on six-for-10 shooting off the bench. Sophomore forward Karina Farr (Graham, Wash.) posted eight points, five rebounds, two blocks and two assists while junior guard Kristie Langley (Staley, N.C.) had six points and six rebounds. Freshman guard Megan Jacoby (Richmond, Va.) tallied five assists and three steals while sophomore guard Courtney Puckett (Bassett, Va.) chipped in six points as a reserve.
For the game, the Wasps were 23-for-60 (38.3%) on their field goal attempts and registered 34 points in the paint. E&H also held a 32-10 lead in bench scoring over BC.
While points in the paint, points off turnovers, and second-chance points were all closely contested between the two teams, the free throw discrepancy of 16-for-20 for Bridgewater and two-for-seven for Emory & Henry certainly played into the outcome of the game.
E&H will now await the announcement of the 2013-14 All-ODAC teams. The league's yearly honors will be presented at the conference banquet on Wednesday evening at the Salem Civic Center in conjunction with other ODAC Tournament festivities.
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