SALEM, Va. – The No. 3 seed Bridgewater College women’s basketball team earned a 71-60 win against No. 6 seed, Roanoke, in the quarterfinals of the ODAC Women’s Basketball Championships in the Salem Civic Center on Thursday night.

Final Score: Bridgewater 71, Roanoke 60
Records: Bridgewater 20-5; Roanoke 18-8

HOW IT HAPPENED
• India Dailey got the first points of the contest after hitting a three-pointer two minutes into the game, but a dueling triple from Roanoke’s Rose Sande drew the game even at 3-3. The score remained the same for the next two minutes before Jaden Alsberry dropped in a layup to give BC a 5-3 lead, followed by a trey from Riley Corcoran as the Eagles went ahead 8-3 into the first media stoppage of the contest.

• Bridgewater came out of the under-five stoppage with a pair of Abby Branner free throws to take a 10-3 advantage, but the Maroons cut back into the lead at 10-5. The two sides exchanged baskets over the final minutes of the opening quarter as the Eagles held a 15-7 lead after the first 10 minutes.

• Both teams traded scores to open the first three minutes of the second leading to back-to-back Alsberry jumpers to give BC a 22-11 edge. Branner drilled a three as the Eagles were the first to 25 on the scoreboard and was part of a 20-7 run for BC over the last seven minutes of the half. The Eagles took a sizeable 37-18 advantage into the locker room.

• The third quarter was almost the opposite of the second as the Maroons outscored the Eagles 21-12 across the 10-minute period. RC scored less than 20 seconds into the third on a lay up from Lauren Keel with a layup from Madison Nereu to cut into the lead at 38-22 with 9:11 left in the period. Both teams were held without a field goal for the next six minutes as the two sides exchanged free throws throughout that stretch. The basket-less streak was ended by a Sayre Brandstatter floater at the 3:46 mark as the BC lead went down to 42-27. Throughout the entire quarter, the Eagles were held to just one made shot from the floor but went into the final period of regulation with a 49-39 lead.

• Bridgewater opened the fourth frame on a 7-0 run across just a minute and 16 seconds to go ahead 56-39 before a JaBryah Haverkamp free throw ended the run. Corcoran responded with a pull up jumper to maintain an 18-point lead. The next several minutes saw the Maroons creep back into the game as they extended a 15-2 run that took the BC lead down to 60-55 with 3:50 left in regulation. Kayla Ford responded by breaking the run on a clutch three-pointer with under three minutes left to push BC back ahead by eight points. BC increased its lead after the triple from Ford and used 4-of-4 shooting from the line to walk away with a 71-60 victory.

GAME STATS
• Corcoran finished with a game-high 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field to go with five rebounds, an assist and a steal.

• Erika Nettles tallied 13 points on 11-for-12 shooting from the line and registered seven rebounds and a pair of steals off the bench, while Branner and Alsberry each recorded 11 points and seven rebounds in the win.

• For Roanoke, Keel recorded 17 points on 5-of-16 shooting from the field and grabbed six boards. Brandstatter and Sande each had 11 points in the loss.

• Bridgewater outrebounded the Maroons 43-31 and shot 38.8 percent for the game compared to a 32.8% clip from the lower seed.

UP NEXT
Bridgewater advances to the semifinal round of the ODAC Tournament and will face the No. 7 seed, Shenandoah, who upended the No. 2 seed, Randolph-Macon, earlier in the day. The Eagles and Hornets will square off on Saturday, Feb. 25, at 3 pm in the Salem Civic Center for a chance to advance to the league tournament final on Sunday.

— BC Athletics —