The EMU basketball women lost a close game to Bridgewater Wednesday night by a score of 76-62. This game was a successful Play 4 Kay Game as Yoder Arena was filled with pink in support for cancer awareness.

The Royals fall to 9-13 and 6-9 in the ODAC with the season end nearing and conference tournament positioning beginning to take shape. The women look to stay in the thick of it Saturday, February 9 when they travel to play Lynchburg at 3:00pm.

Bridgewater (14-8, 8-7 ODAC) jumped out to an early 12-8 lead midway through the first quarter. The Royals took their first lead of the game at the 4:44 mark after Chrissy Delawder (Broadway, Va./Broadway) hit a three pointer followed by a Lexi Deffenbaugh (Fishersville, Va./Wilson Memorial) layup. Lexi Dean (Elkton, Va./East Rockingham) gave EMU their largest lead of the night at 20-16 with 1:13 to go in the first quarter.

The Eagles took the lead back at 23-22 with 6:14 to go in the first half and held on to it for the rest of the game. Bridgewater found light in an 8-0 run to build a nine point cushion at the 2:20 mark. The Royals fought their way back as Jess Washington (Chesapeake, Va./Great Bridge) made a layup to get EMU back within two points heading into halftime 33-31.

The second half began with an Eagles made three pointer. Emily McCombs (Culpeper, Va./Eastern View) responded with two baskets of her own to get the Royals within one point at 36-35. Bridgewater made the most of a five minute scoring drought by EMU to go on a 14-0 run to increase their lead to 15.

The Royals kept pace with the Eagles in scoring in the fourth quarter, but were unable to find a run that could get them closer than seven points.

EMU shot 39.7% (25-63) in the game and 27.3% (3-11) from three point range while Bridgewater had success shooting from behind the arc at 52.4% (11-21) while going 43.1% (28-65) from the field.

Delawder had the best scoring game in her career to this point with 22 points while also totaling six rebounds. Dean was a force in the paint with three blocks and eight rebounds adding to her eight points. Deffenbaugh scored 9 and picked up three assists.

Madison Baum led the Eagles with 22 points and 14 assists. Allie Coburn also had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.