After suffering their first defeat last Friday evening at the hands of the Sutherlin Lady Bulldogs, Coach Schofield had his Lady Bruins fired up at the tip-off of Tuesday nights match up with St. Mary’s Crusaders.
In the first quarter, the Lady Bruins were unstoppable from the outside. Four different Lady Bruins were in the scorebook, and all the points were from 3 point shots. Sophomore Lexi Schofield, junior guard Sidney Alexander, sophomore guard Lexee Murray, and senior center Chloe McCrae all hit from beyond the 3 point arc for all of the Lady Bruins 12 points in the quarter. The Lady Bruin defense held the Lady Crusader offense to just 7 points from only two St. Mary’s shooters.
The second period was a continuation of the sizzling outside shooting with a dash of inside baskets in the lane. The scoring was led by junior #11 Sidney Alexander who sank three more 3 pointers giving her 4 before the half. Sophomore forward Shelby Jirsa #5 hit a 3 pointer of her to add to the 16 Lady Bruin points in the second period. But senior Lady Crusader guard Emma Bennion #14 would not be denied as she drove into the lane and hit three baskets, getting to the free throw line seven times going 5 of 7 from the line. The Lady Bruins allowed only Bennion to score in the period for 11 points and took a 28-18 ten point lead into the half-time break.
But the Lady Bruins Achilles heal came up to bite them again in the 3red period, as the Lady Crusaders made adjustments to cover the Lady Bruin outside shooting and only allowed 4 Lady Bruin points in the third period. The cold-shooting Lady Bruins also could not stop St. Mary’s who ran off of rebounds and spread the ball around as 5 different Lady Crusaders hit baskets in the quarter for 16 points, erasing a 10 point half-time lead and taking a two-point 32-34 lead into the final period.
In the final period, the Lady Bruins managed 7 points led by Lexi Schofield who hit two baskets and a free throw, as sophomore Seirra Fitzhugh #00 went 2 for 2 from the line. However, the Lady Crusaders kept up the pressure and added 10 more points to their total, forcing the Lady Bruins to foul late to control the clock and give themselves a chance to drive inside and get to the line themselves with the clock stopped. Half of the strategy worked, they did get to the line late, but went 3 for 6 from the free throw line, and falling for their second game in a row.
Talking with Coach Scofield after the game, he said, “We had too many breakdowns defensively. We’ve got to work in our half-court defense and offensive execution.” he went on to say. With the Sutherlin Lady Bulldogs losing to South Umpqua, the now 6-2 Lady Bruins cling to first place and will host the 4-5 South Umpqua Lady Lancers Friday evening at home at 6:00 pm at Bruin Arena.
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