1st-Place Royals Stifle BC, 57-48
Posted: January 25, 2013
HARRISONBURG – When freshman Jessi Strom hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer for Bridgewater College in a game whose outcome had already been decided, she wasn’t just padding her own stats. The Eagles’ team stats took a positive jolt, too.
When you only make five shots in a half, every conversion has that type of effect.
Eastern Mennonite University held BC to no field goals and just four points in a span of 14 minutes, 33 seconds in the second half, and the Royals surged to a 57-48 win Thursday in front of 505 people at Yoder Arena to remain atop the Old Dominion Athletic Conference women’s basketball standings.
BC (8-8 overall, 5-4 in the ODAC) led 39-35 with 15:54 remaining when Strom hit a layup off a give-and-go pass from senior Jessica Mullen. That finished off a 36-22 run for the Eagles in the previous 14:17.
Then, they hit a wall. Hard.
BC went 0-for-15 with 12 turnovers in its dry stretch. EMU (12-5, 8-1) forced many of those giveaways, with coach Kevin Griffin inserting a more athletic lineup in the second half after surrendering a 10-point lead in the first.
“I just felt like we inserted three pretty good athletes, and we just seemed to bother them a little bit more [defensively],” Griffin said. “…They [the Eagles] were struggling more to run their stuff, and they run good stuff.”
Junior guard Keyla Baltimore had the best all-around night for the Royals, blanketing Mullen for much of the game and leading EMU with 12 points.
“If I can take out the best player on their team, I feel like it breaks down the rest of the team,” Baltimore said. “So I love challenges. I love when Coach puts me on the best player. I wasn’t nervous or anything, I just got into her as best as I could.”
Mullen, a shooting guard who came in averaging 18 points per game (third in the ODAC), had 15 points in 38 minutes, including seven on 2-of-8 shooting in the second half. Strom had 11, but that included the late 3-pointer.
“Sometimes we get intent on trying to run our plays and trying to execute so much that we don’t look at what we’re doing, and I think we just need to focus on scoring the ball – every single person on the floor,” Mullen said.
The Royals got 10 points from junior forward Bianca Ygarza, 10 from junior forward Kala Yoders and nine points and 11 rebounds from sophomore forward Shakeerah Sykes off the bench in winning their sixth straight overall, seventh straight league game and third straight over BC.
Coming into the game, the Eagles were actually the better defensive team statistically, holding opponents to 35.4 percent shooting to the Royals’ 36. But you wouldn’t know it from BC’s 5-of-24 second half.
“We’ve got to find another scorer to help Jess,” BC coach Jean Willie said. “They did a good job with Jess, and we really didn’t have another really go-to player step up.”
When you only make five shots in a half, every conversion has that type of effect.
Eastern Mennonite University held BC to no field goals and just four points in a span of 14 minutes, 33 seconds in the second half, and the Royals surged to a 57-48 win Thursday in front of 505 people at Yoder Arena to remain atop the Old Dominion Athletic Conference women’s basketball standings.
BC (8-8 overall, 5-4 in the ODAC) led 39-35 with 15:54 remaining when Strom hit a layup off a give-and-go pass from senior Jessica Mullen. That finished off a 36-22 run for the Eagles in the previous 14:17.
Then, they hit a wall. Hard.
BC went 0-for-15 with 12 turnovers in its dry stretch. EMU (12-5, 8-1) forced many of those giveaways, with coach Kevin Griffin inserting a more athletic lineup in the second half after surrendering a 10-point lead in the first.
“I just felt like we inserted three pretty good athletes, and we just seemed to bother them a little bit more [defensively],” Griffin said. “…They [the Eagles] were struggling more to run their stuff, and they run good stuff.”
Junior guard Keyla Baltimore had the best all-around night for the Royals, blanketing Mullen for much of the game and leading EMU with 12 points.
“If I can take out the best player on their team, I feel like it breaks down the rest of the team,” Baltimore said. “So I love challenges. I love when Coach puts me on the best player. I wasn’t nervous or anything, I just got into her as best as I could.”
Mullen, a shooting guard who came in averaging 18 points per game (third in the ODAC), had 15 points in 38 minutes, including seven on 2-of-8 shooting in the second half. Strom had 11, but that included the late 3-pointer.
“Sometimes we get intent on trying to run our plays and trying to execute so much that we don’t look at what we’re doing, and I think we just need to focus on scoring the ball – every single person on the floor,” Mullen said.
The Royals got 10 points from junior forward Bianca Ygarza, 10 from junior forward Kala Yoders and nine points and 11 rebounds from sophomore forward Shakeerah Sykes off the bench in winning their sixth straight overall, seventh straight league game and third straight over BC.
Coming into the game, the Eagles were actually the better defensive team statistically, holding opponents to 35.4 percent shooting to the Royals’ 36. But you wouldn’t know it from BC’s 5-of-24 second half.
“We’ve got to find another scorer to help Jess,” BC coach Jean Willie said. “They did a good job with Jess, and we really didn’t have another really go-to player step up.”