By TOM NYHUIS
Niles Daily Star

BUCHANAN – Buchanan defended its home court Friday night in Lakeland Conference boys’ basketball action as they wrapped up a week-long celebration of Winterfest by handing visiting Brandywine a 64-48 loss.

Lance Prescott’s game-high 17 points was not enough to carry the Bobcats to a victory as they fall to 5-12 overall and 1-9 in league play.

“Lance stepped up tonight and he has been a heck of a leader,” Brandywine coach Nathan Knapp said. “Even tonight I know he is just exhausted. He has a lot on his plate. We have (Mykal) Toxopeus to relieve him at point so he can sit a little more and put him in as a wing player so he can shoot a little bit more. I tell you Lance keeps us in ball games and I’m proud of that kid.”

Buchanan was lead by Bryan Kuntz and Brandon Jackson’s 11-point effort and Ryan Catalano added 10 to improve the Bucks record to 8-7 overall and 5-3 in the conference.
The Bobcats managed to hang with the Bucks through the effort of Prescott in the first half and trailed by seven, 33-26, at the intermission.

Brandywine quickly cut the lead to two, 33-31, early in the third but the momentum quickly changed as the Bucks kicked up their play a several notches and went on a 19-2 run to end the quarter taking a 52-35 lead into the final eight minutes.

“We are still putting the pieces together and the kids gave 110 percent tonight,” Knapp said of his team’s effort. “It was just that one spurt in the third quarter that we didn’t have no answer for that run.”

Buchanan coach Reid McBeth credits his entire 11-man squad for the effort leading to the big run. Senior Dane Cauffman, who hasn’t seen much floor time, was praised for his hard work and effort during the Bucks spurt. Cauffman scored his two points of the game off an offensive rebound in the run.

“That’s what it takes to win games,” McBeth said. “Everyone on the team playing hard and going after it 100 percent. We need that energy out of everybody all the time and when we get that we are a pretty tough team. Dane was out there doing just that going on the floor two or three times after loose balls. You go that deep on your bench, everyone has to contribute whether its going after the loose ball or rebounding and that is what I was happy about tonight, we had 11 guys dress and all of them contributed.”

Buchanan controlled the boards out-rebounding the Bobcats 33-18. Marquis Tyler pulled in 10 boards to lead the Bucks and Kuntz finished the night with five.

In that decisive quarter the pressure defense by the Bucks caused 11 Brandywine turnovers. For the night the Bobcats had 20.

“Ryan Catalano was a one man wrecking crew for a while there. He created three or four turnovers there by himself,” McBeth said.

Catalano finished the night with four steals to lead the Bucks.

Buchanan extended the lead by as much as 20 in the fourth. The Bobcats were able to chip away at the lead in the waning minutes but in the end it was their poor free throw shooting through out the game that kept them from getting back into the game.
Brandywine finished the night 11-of-23 from the line.

“We had I think 14 missed free throws tonight. You put those in its a one-point game and with some pressure the pressure is on them not us. If we could have hit those free throws and stopped that run it would have been a different ball game. The kids played hard all night, they kept working hard to the very end,” Knapp said.

Due to several injuries the Bobcats have had to bring up four players from the junior varsity squad and Knapp knows its going to take some time to put the pieces together.
“The kids are starting to believe in defense and we have a lot of work to do. We are getting there and we are heading in the right direction.”

BRANDYWINE 48
Jeremy Zimmerman 0 0-0 0; Cody Udell 2 0-0 4; Dustin Sater 1 4-4 7; Lance Prescott 6 3-8 17; Stone Hadley 0 1-4 1; Wyatt Taylor 0 0-0 0; Mykal Toxopeus 0 2-2 2; Aaron Marquardt 2 0-0 5; Joseph Godfrey 2 1-3 6; Austin Searles 2 0-2 6. TOTALS 15 11-23 48
BUCHANAN 64
Spencer Anglero 1 0-0 3; Dylan Arnold 1 2-2 4; Richie Reed 3 0-0 7; Bryan Kuntz 5 1-3 11; Andrew Hearington 3 0-0 6; Dane Cauffman 1 0-0 2; Daniel Blackwell 0 0-0 0; Ryan Catalano 4 2-2 10; Jalen Brown 2 0-0 4; Brandon Jackson 4 0-0 11; Marquis Tyler 2 2-2 6. TOTALS 26 7-9 64

Brandywine 11 26 35 48
Buchanan 15 33 52 64
3-point baskets: Buchanan 5 (Jackson 3, Reed 1, Anglero 1) Brandywine 7 (Prescott 2, Searles 2, Godfrey 1, Marquardt 1, Sater 1). Team fouls (fouled out): Buchanan 22 (none) Brandywine 13 (none). Rebounds: Buchanan 33 (Tyler 10) Brandywine 18. Records: Buchanan 8-7, 5-3 Lakeland; Brandywine 5-12, 1-9 Lakeland. Junior Varsity score: Buchanan 44 (Justin Henderson 17) Brandywine 37 (Mike Schoenleber 8, Evan Hartman 8). Freshman score: Buchanan 45 (Carsten McCarty 9, Blake Graber 9) Brandywine 43 (Alex Brooks 22)