November 8, 2007

 

     Cleveland, TN—The Lady Lions traveled just down highway 60 to Cleveland on Thursday night to take on the Lady Flames of Lee University, ranked 3^rd in the nation in NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball. The Lions were yet to lose, after a big win against Martin Methodist, and a tough win on the road at Morris College. The Lions knew they were in for a tough contest, but Head Coach Jamy Bechler hoped his team would come out and compete and let the chips fall where they may.

     The Lady Lions fell behind early as the Lady Flames pressured them from the get go. Bryan didn’t turn the ball over, but they rushed some shots and were unable to finish. Lee didn’t make the same mistakes and at the half the score was 45-30 in favor of the Lady Flames.

     The second half was more of the same, as Lee keyed on Bryan’s top scorer Katie Davis and decided that someone other than Davis would have to beat them on the offensive end of the floor. Lauren Copeland came off the bench for the Lions and played extremely well, but that was one of the few highlights of the game for the Lady Lions. As the final buzzer sounded, the scoreboard read: Lee 88, Bryan 59.

     Bryan Head Coach Jamy Bechler had this to say about the game, “Lee is the best team we’ll face all year.  Tonight they definitely showed that they are deserving of their #3 national ranking.  They are well-coached and play extremely hard.  However, as good as Lee played tonight, we didn’t help ourselves with our defensive effort.  They are not 30 points better than us, but tonight they took advantage of every mistake that we made.  Lauren Copeland gave us a great spark off the bench in the first half.  We’ve been waiting for her to bust out and have an aggressive game inside.  Jessica Southern did a great job on Jan Dodson in the post, and even though Lee did a good job of shutting Katie Davis down offensively she still played well defensively and led us in rebounding. “

     The Lady Lions jump right back into their tough schedule as nationally ranked opponents Georgetown(Ky.), 36^th in NAIA Division I and Cedarville(Ohio), 26^th in NAIA Division II, come to town this week. The Lady Lions will take on Georgetown Thursday evening at 7 PM and play Cedarville on Saturday afternoon at 1. In between the match ups, on Friday night the two visiting teams will play each other at Summers gymnasium. Both contests will be important tests which Bryan Coach Jamy Bechler will use to measure his talented young team.  The Lady Lions now stand at 2-1 on the year.