Lady Dolphins drop season finale

The Brunswick Community College women’s basketball team has had a hard time finishing strong all season, and the trend continued right through last week’s regular-season finale.

A 10-point halftime lead evaporated in the second half of a 73-68 loss to visiting Lenoir Community College.

“They just don’t have the heart to win,” said BCC coach Kenneth White. “We were up 10 at halftime and gave it to them. It all comes down to heart.”

Wednesday’s loss in the West Brunswick High School gym was the 11th in a row for the Lady Dolphins. They finished 0-18 in the Carolinas Junior College Conference and 2-19 overall.

BCC held a 45-35 halftime lead, but the Lady Lancers outscored the Lady Dolphins 38-23 over the final 20 minutes. White said the second half has been the team’s downfall all season.

“Every team we’ve played we’ve been right there at halftime. Our girls have got to learn to play with heart. We can’t keep using having five or six players as an excuse. Lenoir had one more player than we had,” White said.

“I told our girls at halftime, ‘We’ve been in this position so many times and you got to finish and play ball.’ I’m delighted we played hard. We’ve just got to finish the game.”

Lenoir’s Carla Miller finished with 32 points to lead all scorers. Ciara Crawford added 13 points and Katrina Brown had 10.

High scorers for BCC were Robin Smith and Tiara Brodie with 16 points apiece, Jasmine Monroe with 15 and Temere Williams with 14.

“Robin has really stepped it up the second half of the season. Robin has put the team on her back and played outstanding ball and shown leadership,” White said. “Jasmine has stepped it to too. She’s really come around the last two games.”

BCC is the No. 7 seed in this week’s conference tournament in Wilmington. Games will be played Thursday through Sunday at Cape Fear Community College’s Schwartz Center.

The Lady Dolphins will face No. 6 seed Denmark (S.C.) Technical College in Thursday’s 6 p.m. play-in game at Ashley High School. The winner takes on No. 3 seed Clinton (S.C.) Junior College at 10 a.m. Friday.

“You look at Clinton and Denmark and we had both of them beaten this year twice and let them win,” White said.

“We’ve got an opportunity to do something. Things can happen in the tournament and we can win it. We’ve just got to play 40 minutes of basketball.”

Game Summary

Lenoir 35 38—73

Brunswick 45 23—68

Lenoir scoring: Miller 32, Crawford 13, Brown 10, Lunt 9, Atkinson 6, Hudson-Sorrell 3.

Brunswick scoring: Smith 16, Brodie 16, Monroe 15, Williams 14, Soots 4, Campbell 3.

Doug Rutter is the sports editor at the Beacon. Reach him at 754-6890 or at drutter@brunswickbeacon.com