Wednesday February 16, 2022: Women's Basketball

Baton Rouge, LA.

Tonight, was a battle between the two best teams in the conference.  It would be a match up between the LSUE Lady Bengals and the Baton Rouge Lady Bears to determine the outright leader of the conference.  Each team came into tonight's contest with one conference loss. Whoever would win tonight's game would be the front runner to win the conference title. Like other meetings between these two balls clubs, it was a battle for 40 minutes. The Lady Bears would claw their way to the last second 65 to 64 victory over the Lady Bengals, in an electric atmosphere, inside the Bonne Sante Wellness Center.

In the first quarter, it was a back-and-forth game between the two ball clubs.  Both teams came out with passion and intensity as they knew what was on the line.  The Lady Bears were very aggressive on the defensive end, holding the Lady Bears to single possessions and long shots.  The Lady Bears aggressive defense led to some steals and layups but the Lady Bears were also crashing the boards and running out in transition.  After five minutes of play the game was tied at 8.  The game would be tied again at 10, then the Lady Bears would go on a mini 8 to 5 run to close out the quarter with an 18 to 15 lead.

The second quarter started like the first quarter with both teams trading buckets and going back and forth.  The Lady Bears would clap down on the defensive end limiting the  Lady Bengals to one possession each trip.  The Lady Bears would get hot on the offensive end growing their lead to 10 with 3:33 remaining in the quarter. At the half, the Lady Bears led the Lady Bengals 37 to 33.

The third quarter was another back-and-forth quarter.  The Lady Bengals found a bit of a spark on the offensive end as their shots began to fall. Baton Rouge would outscore LSUE 17 to 15, in the quarter, to take a 54 to 48 lead into the fourth.

The fourth quarter was where the game got interesting as each team continued to battle right down to the final horn.  The LSUE Lady Bengals would take the lead with a three-point play with 5:00 minutes remaining in the game;60-58. Alanna Donaldson would give the Lady Bears the lead with three-point play of her own with 1:59 remaining;63-61.  LSUE's Autumn Chassion would hit a three pointer with 34.1 remaining to give the Lady Bengals a 64-63 lead.  The Lady Bengals had a chance to extend their lead, but they missed two free throws with 14.2 seconds remaining.  Coach Lee would call a timeout to set up the last play for the Lady Bears. The ball would be inbounded to Tronayia Issac at the top of the lane, she would pass the ball to Alanna Donaldson who drove down the lane and hit an off-balance falling shot to give the Lady Bears the 65 to 64 lead.  The Lady Bengals would throw it the length of the floor and try a last second shot but would come up short.  The Lady Bears would survive and win.  With this win, the Lady Bears stand alone on top of the conference standing with two games to play.

With the victory, the Lady Bears improve to 14-7, 6-1 while the Lady Bengals fall to 12-10, 5-2 on the season.

The Lady Bears will be back in action this Saturday February 19 as they travel to Shreveport to take on the Southern Shreveport Lady Jags at 2 pm at Northwood High School.

For more information about Lady Bears Basketball follow us on Twitter at (brcc_ladybears) and Facebook and Instagram at (BRCCAthletics).