Photograph courtesy of ETSU Athletics
The Lady Bucs took it to the Lady Buffs on the basketball court in Brooks Gymnasium during their exhibition match on Saturday.
The Lady Bucs came out on top with a final score of 88-56.
Once the game started, it wasn’t hard to see how the Bucs took a 30-point margin. The Lady Bucs nearly had 50 percent accuracy combined for shots taken on goal, and they hit nine of the 18 three-point shots that were taken.
Milligan had a much higher percentage of successful free-throw shots, but the 12 out of 15 that were made weren’t enough to keep up with the Lady Bucs’ onslaught.
ETSU coach Brittney Ezell is quite aware that even in victory, there is still room for improvement on her team.
“I think our conditioning was really good; our kids were in great shape today, and we played at the pace that we wanted,” Ezell said. “I thought we shot the ball really well early on. Shamauria Bridges did a really good job of setting the tone, and we did a good job working the ball inside and out.”
“The kids gave us some really quality minutes,” Ezell added. “I know I’ll end up going back and watching the tapes to find something to pick at, though, because that’s my job.”
Bridges spoke highly of her teammates and suspected that there would be improvement for the Lady Bucs in the future.
She also said she believes her teammates who will replace the women who graduated last year were adapting very well.
“We’re still shaking off some rust, though,” Bridges said. “We have a lot to work on.”
Even so, that didn’t stop the Bucs from forcing the Buffs to give up the ball 20 times via turnovers.
If these were all avoidable mistakes, it might not be so easy for ETSU to broaden the point gap during their next game.
Milligan put up a fight at the end of the first half and at the beginning of the third quarter before losing their steam and allowing ETSU to roll onto a 32 point lead to finish the game.
Ezell said there was plenty for her team to work on and that they would be approaching the season without getting too excited by this early, and impressive, win.
“I want us to be more engaged defensively,” Ezell said. “Sometimes when a team gets a big lead, they tend to check out mentally. We need to be more focused and engaged on the game.”
The Lady Bucs will play UNC- Asheville this Friday. Time will tell if the Lady Bucs will keep up this strong start to the season.
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