Lady Eagles sweep past WRNMMC-Bethesda 82-60

The Fort Belvoir Lady Eagles took the 82-60 victory over the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center-Bethesda Lady Warriors in Saturday’s week-nine Washington Area Military Athletics Conference game at Graves Fitness Center.

Belvoir went onto the court with an unrelenting offense at the heart of their game plan. Bethesda’s defenders appeared to be expecting the Lady Eagle to take their time in getting into a groove in the opening minutes and left the inside lanes virtually vacant. Point guard Janice Brimm wasted no time capitalizing on the situation, whipping the ball across the court to forward Nicole Pittman who promptly slipped inside for layups. Scrambling to increase the pressure in the lanes, Bethesda tried to shut the open doors with three defenders positioned in the lane. Pittman immediately adjusted her approach and fired from the baseline, sinking a string of buckets that earned the Lady Eagles an early 8-2 lead.

WRNMMC called a timeout at the 16-minute mark to regroup and develop a new strategy to control Pittman and stop Brimm from working the ball inside. The adjustments initially seemed to be paying off. The Lady Warriors unleashed a fierce man-to-man defense that spread their defenders out in a more flexible pattern, forcing the Lady Eagles to carefully calculate their shots. Steal attempts kept Brimm’s passing game busy and Bethesda successfully minimized Belvoir’s scoring from the baseline.

The Warriors got a brief rally going after the Lady Eagles increased their lead to 18-9, focusing on fast-breaks and making effective picks. At the nine-minute mark, Belvoir held a 26-18 lead, but WRNMMC was determined to keep the streak alive, snagging critical rebounds and launching the ball down-court to a fast-breaking teammate. Defensively, the Lady Warriors crowded Belvoir shooters, forcing a sequence of missed buckets and turnovers that allowed them to narrow the gap to six at the five-minute mark. Lady Eagles head coach Sherman Sherin called a late first-half timeout and devised a plan to get some more points on the board and stop the Bethesda charge.

Belvoir slowed the pace of the game, showing patience in reading the defense and waiting for the most opportune time to fire up high percentage shots. Brimm took advantage of sudden breaks in the Warriors’ inside defense and slung the ball over to forwards Joy Roberson and Lauri Munsell who sank a series of baskets that earned Belvoir a 36-24 lead at the two-minute mark.

As their resolve to clamp down on the lanes increased, Bethesda began to fall victim to an increasing number of fouls that sent the Lady Eagles to the free-throw line where they added a few more points to the count.

The Lady Warriors scrambled to even the score, and with a couple of clean three-point baskets and a drive or two inside, managed to close the gap to 40-32 Belvoir at the half-time buzzer.

The second half continued in the same manner as the first, with both squads building momentum only to be answered with an opposing run that kept the score to within five or six points throughout the period. Roberson, Pittman, Munsell and forward Kanee Booth darted across the court and found open spots along the baseline and outside the three-point arc to nail the scores that took Belvoir’s point total to 57 against Bethesda’s 46.

Coach Sherin called for a final timeout following yet another Bethesda run, which added another eight points, to develop a plan to disrupt their fast break, lock down the inside and avoid further fouls that were giving the Warriors easy opportunities.

With Brimm at the helm, the Lady Eagles began a carefully coordinated attack that increased their lead to 76-57 with two-minutes left. Brimm and company successfully stopped another Bethesda rally with intense man-to-man defense that forced the Warriors to launch shots unsuccessfully from the middle of a crowd. Timely rebounds allowed the Lady Eagles to maintain control of the ball and hold onto the lead as the final seconds ran out. Brimm, Munsell and Pittman put the exclamation point on the contest with a series of successful jumpers from the baseline as the final minutes ticked away, putting the 82-60 victory into the books.

Coach Sherin was pleased with his team’s performance against WRNMMC but still believes there is room for improvement in the weeks ahead.

"They played a really good game today, but we should have beaten them worse than that," he said following the match-up. "I think we can still get into a little bit better shape."