By Taylor Chitwood, Sports Info. Student Assistant

FERRUM, Virginia -- The Ferrum College men's basketball team came out on top in a back-and-forth affair at home against Old Dominion Athletic Conference foe Bridgewater Saturday afternoon in front of a packed Swartz Gymnasium.

RECORDS
Ferrum (9-10, 4-6 ODAC)
Bridgewater (6-14, 2-9 ODAC)

THE BASICS
Bridgewater got off to a hot start in this one, jumping out to a 10-4 lead early. Ferrum answered the early surge, outscoring the Eagles 15-9 through the next seven-plus minutes of gameplay. The Panthers would take their first lead of the game off of a trey from Rashad Reed with 3:26 left in the first half and close the half on a 9-4 run. Ferrum would take the 33-27 advantage with them inside the halftime break.

Reed came out firing in the first half for the Panthers, recording 16 points to lead all scorers. James Smith Jr. scored 10 first-half points in his return to the Ferrum lineup on 3-4 shooting from the field. Carington Youn and Nick Helton led the Panthers on the glass, each chasing down four boards. For Bridgewater, Monte Simpkins led the way with seven points and seven rebounds. Jalil Langston had a strong half as well, recording four points and five rebounds.

The second half saw much of what the first half saw, a seesaw with neither team taking full control until the final minutes. Much like the first half, Bridgewater came out firing to open the closing stanza. Again Ferrum would ride the storm and re-take the lead with 6:22 left to play and not look back.

Smith Jr. and Reed led the Panthers in the seond half, each recording 15 points. Young came up huge for the Panthers on the glass in the second half, chasing down 11 rebounds in a career-high 15 rebound effort. For Bridgewater, Chandler Murray did all he could to keep his Eagles in it recoding 21 second-half points. Will Bowser scored nine points and Davrion Grier recorded six points to go along with his four boards.

KEY STATS
Ferrum: Reed 31 pts; Smith Jr. 25 pts; Young 4 pts, 15 reb; Madden-McAfee 9 pts, 7 reb
Bridgewater: Murray 24 pts; Bowser 13 pts; Grier 11 pts, 5 reb; Simpkins 7 pts, 12 reb

BEHIND THE WHISTLE
"This was not pretty, but we found a way to get the job done. I was not happy with our focus level; we were locked in during spurts but not consistently throughout the game, like we need to be. Good opportunity to refocus after this one and hopefully improve our ability to be in tune to every possession." --Head Coach Tyler Sanborn

UP NEXT
Sanborn's team will be back in action on the road to take on ODAC foe Guilford College Wednesday, February 5. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. inside Ragan-Brown Field House in Greensboro, North Carolina.