Coach Schofield and his 6-3 Lady Bruin basketball team finished off the regular season Friday night after traveling to Myrtle Creek to take on the 3-7 South Umpqua Lady Lancers in a must-win situation to secure a home game in the first round of post season play.
With that, the Lady Bruins started the game taking no chances and showing no quarter. Again the Lady Bruins defense pressed at the half-court line and periodically switched out of that to a smothering full-court press disrupting the Lady Lancer offense and forcing bad shots and mistakes.
Senior point guard Sidney Alexander #11 led the way for the Lady Bruins hitting a 3 pointer for 3 of her 5 points in the first. Junior center Sierra Fitzhugh #00 wasn’t far behind with 4 points and senior guard Avana Pettus #10 also hit as the Lady Bruins put up 11 points and took a 5 point lead into the second period.
In the second period, the Lady Lancers countered the Lady Bruin defense with a passing game that spread the ball around to Lady Lancer shooters. Four Lady Lancers put themselves in the scorebook as the Lady Lancers hit for 9 points. But the Lady Bruins were focused, and Sierra Fitzhugh and Lexi Schofield led the way with 5 points each in the period. The Lady Bruins put 18 points in the quarter and took a 29-15 lead into the break.
Much like last years team, the Lady Bruins have consistently had a let down coming out of the halftime break and going into the third period. Sierra Fitzhugh would have none of that on this night as she took over the third period hitting 4 buckets and going 4 of 6 from the free throw line for 12 points. Lexi Schofield and junior Shelby Jirsa #44 hit 3’s as the Lady Bruins put up another 18 points to take a formidable 47-25 lead going into the final 8:00 minutes of play left in the 2020 Basketball regular season.
In the fourth with a substantial lead, the Lady Bruins left no doubt as they continued to make offense difficult for the Lady Lancers. But a scrappy Lady Lancer team scored more in the final period of play than they had all other quarters of play. Putting 12 Lady Lancer points on the board in the fourth, the Lady Bruins matched. Junior guard Lexee Murray #20 led the way for the Lady Bruins hitting a 3 and a bucket for 5 of the Lady Bruins 12 points as the Lady Bruins went on to take the 59-37 win.
Coach Schofield took the time to speak with the Wild Coast Compass after the game and he shared that “This is a big win for us, it sets us up for a home league playoff game against Cascade Christian next week. We were pretty good defensively and our tempo was good eventhough we had some lulls offensively and we were tough to stop.”
The Lady Bruins will start post-season play next Thursday February 20th in Bruins Arena at 6:30pm.
