LYNCHBURG, Va. – Bridgewater College wrapped up its regular season Saturday with an impressive 79-60 road victory over Lynchburg College in Old Dominion Athletic Conference men's basketball action.
The Eagles finished the conference slate with an 8-8 record and clinched the No. 7 seed for the upcoming tournament. Bridgewater will host Shenandoah in a first round game Tuesday evening at Nininger Hall. The Eagles won both games against the Hornets during the regular season.
Lynchburg jumped out to a quick 8-2 lead behind five quick points by Gary Boone II. The Eagles answered and used 3-pointers by Kenneth Waugh and Benaiah Wise and a tip-in by Ed Reddick to take their first lead of the game, 13-12, with 12:34 left in the half.
After a layup by Lynchburg's Alex Graves, the Eagles scored nine straight points to lead by eight. Layups by Ronnie Thomas and Waugh followed by two foul shots from Waugh put the Eagles on top 19-14. Reddick then converted a three-point play for a 22-14 Bridgewater lead with 9:42 remaining in the half.
A jumper by Reddick gave Bridgeawter its first double-digit lead at 30-20 and a 3-pointer by Aaron Adams pushed the margin to 13 points, 33-20, with 4:09 on the first-half clock.
Lynchburg cut the lead to six, 33-27, on Lyndon White's 3-point play, but Waugh connected from 3-point range for a 36-27 Eagles lead with 1:45 left.
Lynchburg's Manny Hernandez and Bridgewater's Kyle Welty traded 3-point shots before a free throw by Boone made the score 39-31. Welty and Hernandez exchanged buckets in the final 40 seconds as the Eagles went to the break with a 41-33 lead.
Lynchburg made a strong push at the Eagles early in the second half as a 12-6 Hornets run cut the margin to two, 47-45, with 14:52 left in the game.
Bridgewater methodically built upon its lead and when Reddick hit 1-of-2 at the line the margin was back to double digits, 61-51, with 8:55 on the clock.
Romie Powell and Zach Hunter went to the foul line and each hit 2-for-2 to increase Bridgewater's lead to 65-51. Following a Hornets turnover, Hunter added a layup to put the Eagles on top 67-51 with 6:46 left in the game.
The Hornets could get no closer than 13 points the rest of the way as the Eagles closed out the 79-60 victory.
Bridgewater utilized a balanced scoring attack with four players in double figures. Daniel McClain led the Eagles with 16 points on the strength 7-of-9 shooting from the floor. Waugh finished the contest with 14 points, followed by Reddick with 13 and Adams with 11.
Boone paced the Hornets with 16 while Alex Graves and Hernandez added 10 each.
The Eagles held a 38-37 edge on the boards with Reddick finishing off a double-double with 10 rebounds.
Bridgewater made seven 3-pointers, six in the first half, and shot 84.6 percent from the foul line, making 22-of-26 shots.