Box Score LEXINGTON, Va. — The Washington and Lee men's basketball used a 14-4 run midway through the first half en route to a 66-57 victory over Bridgewater at the Warner Center on Wednesday.
The Eagles (5-13, 2-7 ODAC) led 17-14 with 10:19 left in the opening stanza, but junior forward Clayton Mutha (Dallas, Texas/Highland Park) started the onslaught with back-to-back layups to put the Generals (8-10, 4-5 ODAC) up 18-17 at the 9:15 mark. After a free throw by sophomore guard Devin Kearns (Cibolo, Texas/Samuel Clemens), Murtha drained another layup to put W&L ahead, 21-17.
First-year forward Connor MacIsaac (Winthrop, Mass./The Rivers School) split a pair of free throws to extend the lead to 22-17 with 7:13 remaining in the period. A three-pointer by first-year guard Kenneth Turner closed the gap to two (22-20), but six straight points by Murtha pushed the margin to eight, 28-20, with 3:39 left in the half. The Generals led by nine (37-28) heading into intermission.
The Blue and White extended the lead to as many as 14 points (51-37) on a layup by senior guard Andy Kleinlein (Chesterfield, Mo./Chaminade College Prep) with 11:31 remaining in the game, but Bridgewater responded with seven straight points to trim the deficit to 51-44 at the 9:41 mark. Junior forward Nicholas George (Charleston, W.Va./Charleston Catholic) ended the spurt with a triple to regain a double-digit advantage (54-44) for the Generals. The team maintained at least a seven-point lead the remainder of the contest.
Murtha led the Generals with 20 points and 10 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season. George finished 5-of-7 from beyond the arc to tally 15 points. Kleinlein and MacIsaac each added 11 points.
Junior guard Bryce Boggs led the Eagles with 18 points, while first-year forward Zach Kopp notched 12 points and five rebounds. W&L shot 45.8 percent (22-of-48) from the field and 42.9 percent (6-of-14) from long range. Bridgewater was 22-of-53 (41.5 percent) from the floor and 6-of-20 (30.0 percent) from downtown.
The Generals return to action on Saturday, when they play at Randolph-Macon at 4:30 pm.
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