On Saturday, Nov. 17, the Badger’s Basketball teams battled their cross-town rivals, the University of Mobile Rams in the annual Badger Brawl.
The Women’s team played first and topped the Lady Rams by six points, the final score being 80-74. The leading scorer for the Lady Badgers was redshirt Junior Tiffany Valentine, who poured in 36 points. Junior Elise Reilly added 23 points of her own, with 12 of them coming from behind the three-point line. Reilly now ranks second in the standings among all NCAA Division II women’s basketball players for three point field goals made. Reilly expressed her feelings about her accomplishment saying, “I’m super excited about it considering there are so many D2 schools! Hopefully, I can keep it up and still be number one at the end of the year.”
The Men’s team played the second match of the day. The Badgers came into the game with a record of 1-2 on the season, and the Rams sported a record of 0-2. The competition was evenly matched throughout, with both teams staying within a few baskets of one another for the entire game. Badger Freshman Justin Allison led all scorers with 19 points, with Junior Greysn Rogers hot on his heels with 17 of his own. In the end, the Badgers survived a last second three-point attempt by the Rams, to come out with a 74-73 win.
The boys’ varsity coach, Coach Kennedy, discussed the victory explaining that “Beating your cross-town rival in any sport is huge for a program. Especially to be able to compete with an established program like Mobile is very important for our squad. Coach Niland at Mobile does an excellent job and we were fortunate to hold on for the win. I was really proud of how our guys competed and persevered.” Kennedy also touched on what the win means for the future of the badgers. “This win, like all games for us, is a barometer of where we are at and where we need to go. The rest of the season we need to have continued incremental improvement and leadership. The reality in any sport is that the players have to make plays and it is our job to put them in a position to have success. If we can continue improving as we have I expect that we will have a successful season.”
If you missed these games, you can watch both Badger Basketball teams face off against the Mobile Rams again on Saturday, December 8th at home in the Arthur R. Outlaw Recreation Center.
