Eagles to Face Roanoke in Semifinals

Box Score

SALEM, Va. --- Bridgewater College took its first step in a repeat bid on Thursday afternoon as the Eagles outlasted Washington and Lee University, 77-65, in the second quarterfinal of the 2009 ODAC Women's Basketball Tournament.  Bridgewater improves to 16-10 on the season while the Generals end the year with a 14-12 record.

Bridgewater will meet Roanoke College in the first women's quarterfinal on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.  The Maroons have already defeated the Eagles twice in regular season play, winning 60-49 at BC on December 2 and 60-54 at home on January 20.

Against W&L, Jennifer Saunders led four Eagles in double figures with 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting.  Jordan Burkholder notched 14 points, hitting on all eight of her free throw attempts.  Kristin Bosserman and Jenny Logan each collected 13 points with Logan going 9-of-12 from the charity stripe.  Rebecca Henderson was solid with nine points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots.

Rebecca Bolton led all scorers and four Generals with double digits with 21 points.  She connected on 11-of-12 free tosses, adding nine rebounds to her stat line.  Meghan Ingram collected 15 markers while Bethany Ridenhour added 14 points with seven steals, tying her for fifth all-time in the ODAC Women's Basketball Tournament single-game steals list.

In the first half, the teams traded the lead a few times over the first six minutes before Bridgewater opened a five-point lead at 13-8 with 13:19 showing on the clock.  The Eagles' lead continued to grow, hitting 12 points at 24-12 at the 8:08 mark. 

Washington and Lee cut its deficit to six points with 5:35 to go in the half, but a pair of three pointers by Burkholder and Bosserman quickly reestablished the Eagles' dozen point advantage at 32-20.  The Generals reaffirmed their efforts to cut into the BC lead, working the scoring down to 38-32 going into the intermission.

Neither team could get much of a foothold at the start of the second frame with Bridgewater's lead hovering between four and eight points until Bosserman connected on another long-distance jumper to put the Eagles' ahead, 49-40, with 13:59 to play.

Bridgewater asserted its offense over the next several minutes, moving out to a game-high 18-point league following a pair of Logan free throws with 8:01 on the clock.  Two three-pointers by Ingram and a lay-up from Ridenhour cut the BC advantage down to 10 with 6:39 to go.

The Generals got as close at seven points at 68-61 following another Ridenhour lay-in, but Bridgewater hit 9-of-12 free throws down the stretch to stave off any W&L comeback attempt.