CASSOPOLIS — Forget the fact that the Brandywine girls basketball team won Friday night’s Lakeland Conference game by 20 points.

Forget the fact that the win was the 44th straight in the league and it kept the No. 3-ranked Bobcats undefeated.

For Brandywine coach Josh Hood there is only one way to play the game of basketball and according to him, his squad did not live up to those expectations in a 51-31 win over host Cassopolis.

“We are what we are and when we don’t make the threes we have to find another way to win,” Hood said. “We didn’t do a good job tonight. That’s the most lackluster performance that we have had since I have been here the last four years. That is 100 percent correct. They took us out of our game. We played scared a little bit, which is weird.

“This all comes from coaching, so I will take the blame for it. I don’t know what we have to do because we worked them hard the last couple of days. I’m very disappointed from the top to the bottom, from our leadership to the younger girls. We played very nervous tonight and we didn’t execute.”

Hood demands that his team play with poise and with intensity. They were able to force turnovers against the quick Ranger squad, but those turnovers did not translate into easy baskets as they usually do.

As a result, the Bobcats were forced to manufacture points and when they weren’t hitting on all cylinders, things got a little hair at times.

“The worst thing is we’re not getting better,” Hood said. “We were complacent on defense. If we have a bad shooting night we still can count on our defense. Tonight we reached and we didn’t use our feet. It was a very bad display of basketball.”

The cold shooting night teamed with an inspired performance from an equally young Ranger team allowed Cassopolis to stay within striking distance until the very end.

Brandywine led just 15-11 after one quarter and 26-19 at halftime. Just moments before the half ended, however, Casssopolis cut the Bobcats’ lead to 22-19. A 4-0 run to end the half gave Brandywine a little breathing room.

Things didn’t get any better for the Bobcats in the third quarter as it continued to struggle. Brandywine was able to take advantage of a few mistakes by the Rangers to open up a 35-13 lead heading into the final quarter.

The game was very much still in doubt until back-to-back buckets by Brooke Smith and Victoria Knight, the latter coming with 5:10 showing on the clock sealed the verdict for the Bobcats.

Leading 41-24 at that point, Brandywine took care of the basketball, scratched out a few points and forced the Rangers into some difficult shots.

Brooke Smith led the Bobcats with 14 points, while Mackenzie Shelton and Emily Erwin both finished with 11 points.

Janye Butts led the Rangers with 11 points and nine rebounds.