The Lady Bruin varsity basketball team started their regular season play on the road taking on the Cascade Christian Lady Challengers in Medford.
The 10-3 Lady Bruins came out with high energy as both teams struggled to take control of the court. But the Lady Bruins had a tough shooting night from the beginning as missed shots and scoring opportunities were left on the court. Both teams were pretty even in the first period as the lady Bruins spread the scoring out early with 5 Lady Bruins in the scoring column.
The Lady Challengers started the second period with an 11-12 lead as the Lady Bruins defense allowed only three Lady Challengers to score. But the cold-shooting spell for the Lady Bruins continued as they worked their offense into open shots that just wouldn’t fall. Senior point guard Sidney Alexander #11 and Shelby Jirsa #5 both hit 3’s in the period as the Lady Bruins tried to work through a tough shooting spell putting up only 9 points in the period to the 12 Lady Challenger points.
With a 20-24 lead to start the second half, the Lady Challengers picked up where they left off, hitting for 13 points in the third. Sidney Alexander hit two 3 pointers in the period as the Lady Bruins hit for 11 points. But again the Lady Challengers put up 13 points in the period extending their lead to 31-37 going into the final period.
In the fourth quarter, a determined Lady Bruin team tightened the defense holding the Lady Challengers to just 6 points off of free throws. Four Lady Bruins were in the scorebook in the fourth period led by junior guard Lexee Murray #20 who hit a big 3 pointer. But the Lady Bruins shooting woes continued and even though they outscored the Lady Challengers in the final period, they just could not get the ball to fall late, taking the 40-43 season-opening loss.
Talking with coach Scofield after the game he said “That wasn’t pretty tonight. We had a really hard time matching their intensity. We struggled shooting the ball all night long and gave up too many second-chance points.” he said. “We didn’t attack the rim nearly enough and they did a good job of rebounding our misses to limit us to one shot per possession.” He went on to say. “Our kids are pretty disappointed tonight. But it’s a long season and we have some work to do before Tuesday,” he said.
The Lady Bruins will be at home Tuesday evening at 7:00 pm taking on the 4-10 Douglas Lady Trojans.
