WINCHESTER, Va. – The Shenandoah University men's basketball team took a major step forward Wednesday evening in its ODAC Tournament hopes by taking out Bridgewater, 84-74, at the James R. Wilkins, Jr. Athletics & Events Center.
Shenandoah (4-20, 3-12 ODAC) snaps a 10-game losing streak with the victory over Bridgewater (9-14, 5-10).
IN BRIEF
The win also brings SU into a 10
th place tie with Randolph in the league standings. Shenandoah holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over the WildCats, and so with either a win Saturday versus Hampden-Sydney or a Randolph loss versus Washington & Lee punches the Hornets ticket into the 10-team ODAC Tournament.
In that scenario, SU would travel to the No. 7 seed (either Hampden-Sydney or Eastern Mennonite) Monday night in a 7 p.m. opening round contest.
Shenandoah led virtually wire-to-wire versus the Eagles, but needed a rally as Bridgewater erased an 11-point second half SU lead with a big run.
Trailing 51-40 following a
Davion Roberts jumper at 15:05, BC scored 16 of the game's next 21 points to tie the contest at 56-56 with 8:54 remaining. Roberts answered with another jumper on the Hornets next possession and kickstarted a 12-3 Shenandoah run in the process.
Now with a nine-point lead and just five minutes remaining, the Hornets outscored BC 16-15 down the stretch to earn the victory.
Deondre McNeill paced the victors with 24 points with
Jaylen Williams adding 20 and Roberts 18.
Trammell Anthony gave SU a fourth player in double figures with 10 points.
Shenandoah shot 51 percent (34-of-67) from the field and had a 43-27 advantage on the boards. This led to the Hornets scoring 23 of the game's 25 second chance points.
The victory also splits the season series between the two programs.
UP NEXT
Shenandoah completes its regular season on Saturday with a 2 p.m. Senior Day game versus Hampden-Sydney.
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