BRIDGEWATER, Va. (BC Athletics) – The Bridgewater College men’s basketball team used a huge second half to move past Mary Baldwin 93-68 on Tuesday night.

Final Score: Bridgewater 93, Mary Baldwin 68
Records: Bridgewater 4-2; Mary Baldwin 4-3

How It Happened
• Bridgewater opened with the game’s first seven points with four from Aaron Oates and a three-pointer from Will Dunlap. MBU got on the board with back-to-back scores to spark a quick 10-2 run with Zach Sloan’s bucket making it 10-9 for the Fighting Squirrels seven minutes in. BC replied with deep-range makes from Maleek Richardson and Steve Burgess to wrestle the lead back but a 7-0 spree for the visitors led by five points from Jaden Ignacio put MBU in front 17-15 with 9:49 to play in the period.
• The two sides traded buckets until a stop and a score by Mary Baldwin gave the Fighting Squirrels a six-pint advantage at 25-19. BC slowly chipped away at the deficit as contributions from Burgess, Woody Machado and Jordan Cooper knotted the game at 25-25 with 3:29 to go. Ignacio responded with a three-pointer for MBU but buckets from Machado and Cooper put BC back in front at 29-28. Ignacio got on the board again to take the edge back, but a make from Oates at the buzzer put the Eagles in front 33-32 at the intermission.
• Oates got the scoring started in the second half and a Machado jumper followed to put the Eagles in front by five. The two sides swapped three-pointers as Ignacio and Machado struck back-to-back, but a make at the charity stripe by MBU cut the lead back down to four at 40-36 with 17:49 on the clock. Both teams continued to trade tree-point makes including a pair by Ignacio and Khalil Ward to keep the game close as Mary Baldwin was able to pull to within a pair at 50-48 with 13:47 to play.
• This is where the game took a turn. BC jumped on a quick 13-0 run that lasted just over two minutes as buckets from Cooper, Oates, Machado and Burgess made it 63-48 still with 11:16 to play. Mary Baldwin stopped the run, but just for a moment as BC pulled away on a 14-1 scoring spree as Cooper, Machado and Oates all knocked down multiple buckets to make it 77-51 with 7:35 to go. MBU stopped the field goal drought with a make, but a Copper three-pointer followed by a Machado layup made it a 82-53 game. The teams traded buckets over the last six minutes, but the damage was done as a Burgess make late sealed the deal at 93-68.

Match Notes
• BC was led by big nights from Oates, Cooper, Burgess and Machado. Oates and Cooper each tallied 20 points and combined for 11 rebounds as a duo. Cooper also pitched in a season-high six assists.
• Machado and Burgess set career highs with 17 and 13 points respectively. Machado tied his career-best with nine rebounds and went an efficient 8-of-9 from the floor. Burgess doubled his season points tally coming into Tuesday’s game.
• Ignacio led all scorers with 27 points including four makes from deep. Raymond Benton led all players with 11 boards for MBU.
• Bridgewater had a second half to remember going 23-for32 from the floor (71.9%) and 5-of-6 from beyond the arc for a total of 60 points in the frame. The 60 points is the second largest tally in a single game by the Eagles in the last two seasons. BC also registered 58 points in the paint in the victory.

Up Next
The Eagles head away for the Thanksgiving holiday and return with their ODAC opener at Lynchburg on Dec. 4 at 7 p.m.

— BC Athletics —