WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Bridgewater College men's basketball team fell to Catholic at the buzzer on Saturday after an impressive come from behind effort.
The Basics
Final Score: Catholic 65, Bridgewater 62
Records: Bridgewater 2-5, Catholic 9-0
How It Happened
- The Eagles opened the game with a defensive stop and Liam Caswell was able to find Will Dunlap in the paint for the first score of the contest. After the opening BC bucket the Eagles were held without a field goal for the next 4:44, but knocked down two free throws to stay with in striking distance. Aaron Oates ended the drought in transition and he was fouled. He made the ensuing free throw to knot the game at 7-7. The Cardinals were able to drill two three-pointers to extend their lead to six before Alec Topper found Oates for a long ball of their own.
- Catholic extended the lead back out to six with 12:07 to go in the opening frame, but a Maleek Richardson three-pointer and a pair of free throws by Landon Hawes got Bridgewater back to within a point at 17-16. After the pair at the charity stripe, the Cardinals went on a 10-1 run until Andy Pack hit a pull up jumper to slow the momentum. Pack then drilled a jumper from beyond the arc to put the Eagles within eight with 7:44 left in the opening half.
- The Cardinals pushed their lead out to as much at 13 with seven minutes to go in the frame but the Eagles put together a 8-2 run to get the lead down to seven after Hawes hit two more from the charity stripe. Catholic responded with a run of their own to stretch the lead back out to 15 at the break with a 46-31 advantage.
- The opening two minutes of the second half belonged to Pack. The graduate student tallied the first six points of the frame to spark a 9-2 BC run out of the intermission to close the lead to 48-42. Pack nailed a three-pointer to push his second half total to nine with 13:29 remaining. The long ball stretched the Bridgewater run to 14-7 in the opening eight minutes of the half to close the Catholic lead to 53-45. Bridgewater continued the hot start to the second half with a Hawes three-pointer and an Oates layup closing the lead to just just three.
- With 3:15 to go the Eagles cut the deficit to just one after an old fashioned three-point play from Hawes drew the game to 60-59. BC had multiple chances to take the lead but both teams were held scoreless after the Hawes play until Jesse Hafemeister was able to nail a three-pointer to give Catholic a four point advantage with 41 seconds on the clock. Bridgewater was not successful on the next offensive possession forcing them to foul. The Cardinals hit both shots from the charity striped to extend the lead to six, but Pack hit a three-pointer to draw the Eagles back to within a possession five seconds later. The Eagles got a quick foul sending Hafemeister to the line for an one-and-one opportunity but he missed the front end and Oates grabbed the board with 11 seconds to go. Bridgewater drove down the floor and got the ball in the hands of Pack who got a shot off at the buzzer but it was blocked sealing the game for Catholic for the Cardinals to remain unbeaten.
Match Notes
- Pack led Bridgewater in scoring with a season high 18 points in the win. The gradate student shot 42.9% from the floor including 4/9 from long range.
- Hafemeister put up a game high 22 points and 15 rebounds for the Cardinals. Sean Nylon also added 19 for Catholic.
- Topper picked up a sneaky double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Oates was just a single rebound short of one himself as he grabbed nine boards and tallied 10 points.
- The game was a tale of two halves. Catholic outscored Bridgewater 46-31 in the opening 20 minutes, but the second half was controlled by the Eagles defense as BC outscored CU 31-19 and held the prolific Cardinals offense to just 22.6% shooting.
- Catholic entered the game at 8-0 and had received votes in the latest D3Hoops.com poll.
Up Next
Bridgewater returns to action on Tuesday Dec. 13 back in the friendly confines of Nininger Hall as they host Mary Baldwin at 7 p.m.
