BRIDGEWATER, Va. -- The Bridgewater College men's basketball team picked up a 76-69 win over Ferrum on Saturday afternoon within the friendly confines of Nininger Hall

THE BASICS
Final Score: Bridgewater 76, Ferrum 69
Records: Bridgewater 9-8, 4-4 ODAC; Ferrum 8-10, 4-5 ODAC

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Panthers opened the contest on an 11-4 run in the opening five minutes of play before a Bridgewater time out attempted to stall the Ferrum momentum. Despite a pair of free throws from Aaron Oates the Panthers extended their advantage to 16-6 after a Deshone Hicks triple. The Eagles responded with a pair of long balls from Landon Hawes and Connor Ballou and a Shod Smith old fashioned-three-point play put the home squad back to within a single point with 8:20 to go in the opening stanza.
• Ferrum extended its lead back out to three points, but an 11-2 run for the Eagles shifted the landscape. BC shot 4/6 from the floor over the span, led by five points from Khalil Ward and Smith added four. The Panthers made four consecutive attempts from the charity stripe to bring the game back to within two possessions and cut the BC advantage to just a single point after their first field goal in over four minutes. FC added two more free throws from Hicks to take a 28-27 lead into the intermission.
• The visiting side opened the half with back-to-back buckets, extending the lead to five points. Once again, the Eagles responded when needed with a 7-0 stretch capped off by an Alec Topper second chance effort to give the home side a 34-32 edge three minutes into the second half.
• The two sides traded the lead but eight straight points from Calvin Washington gave the Panthers another six-point advantage. Ward returned the favor for BC, rattling off eight straight points of his own including a layup to give the Eagles the lead back. Ferrum was able to work back and tie the game but a free throw from Liam Caswell and a dunk by Smith pushed the home side back out in front.
• FC took the lead back exactly halfway through the period and held on to it for nearly nine minutes before Caswell found Smith and the sophomore laid it in to give the Eagles a 67-66 lead with 1:21 left on the clock. An 11-3 run for the Eagles over the final 81 seconds secured the victory led by seven makes from the charity stripe in as many attempts.

MATCH FACTS

• Smith led the scoring for BC with 20 points and Topper added 19. Two freshmen notched career highs in scoring, Connor Ballou racked up eight points and Ward added 16.
• Washington and Hicks combined for 27 of Ferrum's 69 points. Alfredo Abel-Rivera was the only other Panther with multiple field goals, adding 17 points.
• Smith, Oates and Topper all grabbed six rebounds for the Eagles and Smith also added three assists and two steals.
• Bridgewater shot just 23.5% from three-point land, but made it count as the visiting side was just 1/13 from long range.
• Ferrum led by as much as 10, however; a 26-2 margin in bench points made the difference for BC.

UP NEXT
Bridgewater makes the short trip to Lexington to take on Washington and Lee on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m.