LEXINGTON, Va. – Washington and Lee took advantage of a cold-shooting third period by Bridgewater College to open up a double-figure lead and the Generals went on to defeat the Eagles 71-57 Tuesday evening in ODAC action.
W&L (2-2, 1-0 in the ODAC) outscored the Eagles 22-13 to stretch a one-point halftime lead to 55-45 at the end of three periods. Bridgewater would get no closer than seven points in the final period as the Generals closed out the victory.
Andrea Ferrero opened the contest with a three-point play for W&L, but buckets by Briana Moore and Jessica Lam put the Eagles up by a point. After buckets by W&L's Emily Perszyk and Jackie Clifford, Lam hit two free throws to trim the Generals' lead to 7-6.
Bridgewater (2-2, 0-1 in the ODAC) regained the lead, 9-7, on a 3-pointer by Moore, but a driving layup by Perszyk tied the score at 9-9. A short jumper by Sydni Carey and a layup by Moore put the Eagles up 13-9, but the Generals scored the next four points to tie the score.
Lam hit 1-of-2 at the line and Moore added another bucket to put the Eagles up by three, 16-13, but W&L's Casey Taylor knocked down a 3-pointer with 11 seconds left to tie the score at 16-16 at the end of the opening period.
The Generals scored the first six points of the second period, forcing the Eagles to play catch-up for the remainder of the half.
A layup by Perszyk gave W&L a 33-26 lead with 1:28 left in the half, but the Eagles scored the final six points to pull within one. Lam hit two free throws and Kara Campbell scored four straight points, including a layup off a nice inside pass by Carey with just five seconds left, to send the Eagles to the break trailing by just a single point, 33-32.
Washington and Lee opened the third period with an 11-2 run to take a 10-point lead. The Generals led by 14 points midway through the third period when Clifford knocked down consecutive shots for a 50-36 W&L advantage. At the end of the third period, W&L led by 10 points, 55-45.
Bridgewater made one run at the Generals in the final period when a 5-0 spurt sliced the margin to seven points. Lam took a pass from Kaitlyn Lehan and knocked down a short jumper to cut the margin to 10 with 6:22 left in the game. After a W&L turnover, Carey found Lam cutting to the basket and the Eagles senior converted the layup while being fouled. She tacked on the free throw to pull the Eagles to within 61-54 with exactly six minutes left.
The Generals regained control when Clifford hit a short jumper and Perszyk added a three-point play for a 67-54 lead with 3:33 left in the game.
Perszyk poured in a game-high 24 points and Clifford added 17 to lead the Generals' offense. Lam finished with 22 points and Moore scored 16 to pace the Eagles.
The Generals held a 42-35 edge on the boards. Clifford pulled down eight rebounds for W&L while Lam led the Eagles with seven.
W&L connected on 29-of-64 shots for 45.3 percent while the Eagles made just 19-of-61 shots for 31.1 percent shooting.
Bridgewater returns to action on Wednesday, Nov. 30 when the Eagles host Mary Baldwin. Game time is 7:00 p.m.