Last week the Lady Bulldogs won their first basketball game of the season in Bunker Hill Community College's gymnasium, located in the new Health and Wellness Center.

The Lady Bulldogs 73-39 landslide over Bristol Community College marked the first official home game in the history of Bunker Hill basketball. Prior to the gymnasium in the new Health and Wellness Center, the Bull Dogs were forced to play many of their games at Chelsea High School.

Before the game began, college officials honored Boston coaching great Alfreda Harris, who coached for Emerson College, the University of Massachusetts-Boston and Roxbury Community College.

"That was pretty special," said Chris Jones, the college's athletic director and head coach of the men's basketball team. "It was special and at the same time it was yet surreal." 

Second-year guard Teresa Pina led all scorers with 31 points, and Keyarra Drayton also played in her first game for the Lady Bulldogs. The 6'3" forward scored 23 points and hauled in 15 rebounds in her debut.

"She's sort of along the lines of a Shaquille O'Neal on the women's side," said Jones of the Lady Bulldogs new forward. "She's a freshmen. She's still learning, and she's really working hard on her conditioning, but she's a pretty good one for us."

The men's basketball team will tip off their season on the Nov. 23 against Holyoke Community College. The game will begin with a ceremony honoring Boston Celtic's Point Guard Dana Barros.

Boosting services for students who have served

While the Lady Bull Dogs were busy winning their first game of the season, officials were unveiling the new Veteran's Center on the other side of the campus. James Wright, president of Dartmouth College, and Author Jonathan Shay were in attendance for the ceremony.  

The center will provide a place for the college's 370 veterans to sign up for classes, do homework, or meet with Stephen Roy, the school's veterans representative. The center also gives veterans a place to meet and get to know each other. "Us veterans, we tend to stick together," said Yanissa Andre, who served 14 months in Iraq for the U.S. Army. "It's good to see familiar faces of people that have been through the same thing as you have."

Along with the new space, the center has also allowed the college to hire veterans for work- study positions.

"Now because of the amount of veterans we have here, the VA allows us to have three veteran work studies," said Roy. "So those are students here at the school that are veterans, that are using some sort of veterans education benefit and the VA pays them for it."