Coming into Wednesday evenings game hosting the Cascade Christian Lady Challengers, the Bruin girls basketball team suffered a set back before the opening tip as head coach Kara Miller suffered a personal injury over the holiday break, keeping her from the sidelines Wednesday evening, putting assistant coach Kyla Babich as interim head coach in Miller’s absence.
In the opening minutes of the first quarter both teams matched play, pressing into the others defense to put points on the board and establish control leaving the score tied 5-5 midway through the first. The Bruin girls put 3 girls in the scoring column in the period, but Lady Challenger 3 pointers would give Cascade Christian the 7-10 lead after the first period.
The game opened up in the second period, but cold shooting and defensive pressure held the Bruin girls to just one basket in the first half of the second period as Cascade Christian added 9 points to lead 9-19 midway through the second period. In efforts to slow the Lady Challengers, the Bruin girls sent the Lady Challengers to the line where they shot 4 for 6 on their way to 14 points in the period taking a 15-24 lead into the locker room at the half.
The Bruin girls came out of the locker room flat, struggling to put points on the board early as the Lady Challengers pressured the Bruin girls slowing down fast break and disrupting passing lanes and forcing turnovers. The Lady Challengers put up 11 points in the period while holding the Bruin girls were held to just 6 points.
Going into the fourth period, trailing by 14 points, the Bruin girls defense shut down the Lady Challengers with a taste of their own medicine, pressuring full court, disrupting passing lanes, forcing errors and running on Cascade Christian mistakes. The Bruin girls hit two 3-pointers and put 14 points in the scorebook getting the score within 5 points late, only to fall short as time ran out, 35-44.
The Bruin girls will be home this Friday evening, hosting the Lakeview Lady Honkers, coming off a 10 point loss to Henly Wednesday evening, with tip-off scheduled at 7:00pm.
