After a string of three wins, the Stone Bridge Bulldogs's good fortune finally ran out on Tuesday. They took a 48-43 hit to the loss column at the hands of Briar Woods. While losing is never fun, Stone Bridge can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Virginia basketball rankings (they are ranked 50th, while Briar Woods is ranked fifth).
Despite the defeat, Stone Bridge saw an underclassman step up: Sravya Janapati scored 20 points along with two steals. The team also got some help courtesy of Ava Ryan, who scored nine points along with six assists and three steals.
Hope Drake was her usual excellent self, almost dropping a double-double on 19 points and nine rebounds for Briar Woods. Drake hasn't dropped below 18 points for seven straight games. Another player making a difference was Tia Chen, who scored eight points along with five assists and five steals.
Stone Bridge's loss ended a four-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 13-4. As for Briar Woods, they pushed their record up to 17-1 with that victory, which was their tenth straight on the road.
Stone Bridge will be playing in front of their home fans against Independence at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Stone Bridge is facing Independence at the right time seeing as Independence is stuck on a ten-game losing streak. As for Briar Woods, they and Lightridge will face off at 7:15 p.m. on January 31st without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Briar Woods is strutting with some offensive muscle, as they've averaged 60.9 points per game this season.
