In Short: Cape Fear Women's Basketball endures their first loss of the season in an incredibly close battle against the Bryant & Stratton Bobcats.
Highlights:
Cape Fear Women's Basketball traveled to Chesapeake, VA to take on the Bryant & Stratton Bobcats on their home court. The Bobcats have a similar success rate to the Sea Devils - their only loss of the season being at Cape Fear's Carly Rae Classic against Division I South Georgia tech Jets in November of 2022. Both Cape Fear and Bryant & Stratton now hold season records of 13-1 after the Bobcats dealt the Sea Devils their first loss of the 2022-2023 Women's Basketball season.
The Sea Devils started off on their back foot from the jump against the Bobcats. Bryant & Stratton (VA) has a long history of being a high-energy women's basketball team that plays in a competitive atmosphere with heavy fan presence. The Bobcats had their foot on the gas from the very beginning and took a 21-13 lead to finish the First Quarter.
Cape Fear had an especially hard time in the Second Quarter finishing layups under pressure and finding new and creative ways to penetrate the defensive structure of the Bobcats. Bryant & Stratton made the Sea Devils earn every basket and did not let small mistakes on Cape Fear's part go unexploited.
However, moving into the Second Half, Cape Fear had enough and continued to remind each other that they were also an undefeated Region 10 Conference team against the well-matched Bobcats. They soon closed the 20 point score gap and only allowed 5 points from the Bobcats in the 4th Quarter.
Cape Fear finished strong with their minimal 9 point deficit to Bryant & Stratton by the end of the game. While it isn't easy losing their first matchup of the season, Cape Fear understands that they need to come out stronger much earlier into these matchups in order to achieve the positive outcomes they know they can have.
"Of course our first loss of the season doesn't leave a good taste in our mouths, but that was a good team and so are we," says Assistant Coach Taylor Todd-Williams optimistically. "It's just a learning experience that we needed in order to grow. We will see them again this season and from here we look forward to our next home game against another good team: Richard Bland."
Cape Fear now stands at #3 in the Region 10 Conference rankings with the Bobcats taking #2 alongside #1 Richard Bland Statesmen. Both the Statesmen and the Bobcats remain 8-0 in conference play while the Sea Devils are not far behind at 9-1. The next highest ranked team (as of 9:30 AM Jan. 23) is Southwest VA - holding a conference record of 3-3.
Up Next: Cape Fear returns home to the Joe & Barbara Schwartz Center on Saturday, January 28th at 1PM to take on the Richard Bland Statesmen.
