A new role brings different responsibilities for a basketball player.

Midway through this season, Brandywine senior Zach Schmidt had to grow into the position of shooting guard after being a point guard since his sophomore year.

Schmidt has seen his minutes decrease as a point guard because of the addition of Niles High School transfer Hunter Slaughter.

“That’s allowed (Schmidt) to branch off and do some other things,” said Brandywine boys basketball coach Nathan Knapp.

Some of those other things were on display Monday in Brandywine’s 53-47 win over Mendon.

Schmidt scored a career-high 16 points and grabbed five rebounds for the Bobcats. The 5-10 guard came in averaging 7.5 points a game.

“He carried us,” Knapp said. “He does all the little things for us, like boxing out. He’s fundamentally sound and another leader on the court for us.”

Schmidt’s two 3-pointers in the first half helped Brandywine take a 32-22 halftime lead and his 10 points and two rebounds in the fourth quarter helped seal a Bobcats’ win. Schmidt went 8-for-9 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.

“I was feeling it at the free-throw line and I wanted to get there and make those shots,” said Schmidt.

Schmidt, who embraced the idea of playing some shooting guard, has shown signs recently of becoming a bigger scoring threat for the Bobcats.

“All week I’ve been shooting the ball pretty good,” Schmidt said. “Coach has been telling me in practice to shoot the ball. He said he was going to take me out of games if I didn’t shoot the ball when I had open looks. What he said was really a confidence booster for me.

“Hunter coming in has really helped me. I’ve kind of moved to the two spot so now I can get more open looks.”

Brandywine had plenty of players that did a good job of shooting against Mendon. Six different players scored at least five points for the Bobcats, who led from start to finish. Slaughter and Vinny Peel each scored 10 points.

“We’ve got so much depth,” Knapp said.

Knapp was even happier with his team’s defense against the Hornets. Mendon shot only 36-percent (20-of-56) from the field.

“We tip our hat with our defense,” Knapp said. “We spend a lot of time on defense.”

Brandywine also did a good job of rebounding on Monday. The Bobcats finished with a 32-17 rebounding advantage with Austin Knapp leading the way with eight rebounds. Andrew Duckett added six and Peel totaled five.

Nathan Knapp would like to see his team do a better job of taking care of the basketball. The Bobcats had 20 turnovers against the Hornets — 10 in each half.

“We can’t panic like that,” the Brandywine coach said. “You’ve got to be strong with the ball. You can’t dribble through traps and double teams. The guys have to help each other out and not hide because they’re open.”

The best part for Schmidt has been the success the team has enjoyed this year. Brandywine stands at 10-5. In Schmidt’s first two years on the varsity the Bobcats were 4-17 and 6-14.

“The group of guys we’ve got have really been playing together,” Schmidt said.

With a little added shooting punch in the backcourt.