For Immediate Release
February 26, 1999


Maroons Fall to Bridgewater in Semifinals
Morris Sets Single-Season Three-Point Record

SALEM, Va.--The Roanoke College women’s basketball team lost in the semifinals of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference tournament, 78-60, to the Eagles of Bridgewater College. With the loss Roanoke falls to 20-6 on the season, while Bridgewater improves to 21-5 and advances to Saturday’s championship game where it will play Randolph-Macon College. The Maroons now await to see if they will receive their 10th consecutive bid to the NCAA tournament.
 
Bridgewater controlled the game from the opening tip, grabbing the lead just 20 seconds in, and never trailing in the contest. The Maroons were able to tie the score twice (at 2-2 and 4-4) but with 16:57 left in the first half, the Eagles took the lead for good. The Eagles almost put the game out of reach in the final five minutes of the initial stanza as they hit four of their six first half three-point field goals. With just 1:15 left in the first, a BC jumper pushed the lead to 18 points, 43-25, the team’s biggest lead in the game, a number also matched at the final buzzer. Bridgewater held a 13-point halftime lead, an advantage that Roanoke could never recover from.
 
The Maroons came out and scored the first four points of the second half, but Bridgewater answered with a 6-0 run of its own to make the advantage 15 points. Roanoke trimmed the lead to nine points with eight minutes to go, but got no closer the rest of the way. Clutch free throw shooting by Bridgewater down the stretch kept the Maroons from cutting into the lead.
 
Sarah Dingledine (Standardsville, VA/William Monroe) was Roanoke’s top scorer in the game, netting 12 points on 6-of-13 shooting. She also added five rebounds and two blocked shots to the Maroon effort. Cheryl Rhodes (Roanoke, VA/Cave Spring) tossed in 10 points for the Maroons, who lost in the second round of the tournament for just the second time ever.

Toree Morris (Salem, VA/Glenvar) scored 11 points for Roanoke, and in the process set a single-season school record for made three-pointers. The senior hit three three-pointers in the game, bringing her season total to 70, a number that surpasses the old school mark of 68 (held by Marcee Hufton).
 
The difference in the game was Bridgewater’s shooting. The Eagles made 51.9 percent of their field goal attempts and 60 percent of their three-point tries. The Eagles made a total of nine three-pointers in the game, on just 15 attempts. The Eagles also outscored Roanoke, 15-6, from the free throw line.

Today’s loss snaps the Maroons’ seven game winning streak in the tournament, a streak that had dated back to the 1997 post-season. For only the second time since the league began play in 1982, the Maroons will not make an appearance in the championship game. The 1987-88 squad fell to Emory & Henry in the semifinals, marking the only other time the Maroons have lost a semifinal contest. The loss was also only the second Roanoke has suffered at the hands of Bridgewater in the tournament. The Maroons now hold a 6-2 lead over BC in post-season play, and a 44-5 overall mark in the conference tournament. The two teams had never met in anything other than a championship game until today’s semifinal matchup.
 
Roanoke will now wait to see if its receives its 10th consecutive bid to the NCAA tournament. The Maroons currently have the second longest streak of making the national post-season, a streak that dates back to 1990. Roanoke is tied with Washington (MO) which also has appeared in the past nine tournaments, and trails only St. Thomas (MN), which has played in the past 12 NCAA post-seasons.