Brandywine girls basketball coach Josh Hood talked to his team for several minutes after Saturday’s game against Marian.

No postgame celebration took place in the locker room after the Bobcats beat the Knights, 41-35.

“The message is real simple,” Hood said. “We better start playing with a little bit more passion. We didn’t play with effort and energy tonight. There’s a select few girls in that locker room that better start elevating their game if they want to have success in the postseason. Sometimes, you live off the past. We’ve got some girls who are thinking because we wear Brandywine jerseys we’regoing walk out and beat teams.

“We’ve upped our schedule. If we play like we played tonight we’re going to have games where we get our butts kicked.”

One good run was enough to push the Bobcats past the Knights. A 15-0 run by Brandywine late in the third quarter into the fourth gave the hosts a 34-16 lead with 6:11 left in the game. Emily Erwin score seven of her 16 points during that key stretch.

“Our defense ignited us,” Hood said. “We got a couple of steals. We try to go on 8-0 and 10-0 runs to kind of get some separation in games. It’s a good thing we did that tonight because Marian fought back in the fourth quarter.

“That (run) kind of summed up the night. We go on a run to go up 18 and they call a timeout and we’ve got four girls walking off the court. In that situation our girls are usually sprinting off the court and girls off the bench are running out to meet them. I don’t know what’s going on right now, but we’ll find out and we’re going to fix that.”

Marian responded with an 8-0 run to pull within 34-24 with 4:21 left in the game.

The Knights got two 3-pointers from Libby Priller in the final :15.

Makenna Hartline added 13 points and five rebounds for the Bobcats, who improved to 6-1.
Marian, which fell to 4-10, finished with 24 turnovers and shot only 23-percent (11-of-47) from the field.
BORDER WARS

At Brandywine High School

BRANDYWINE 41, MARIAN 35

MARIAN 35

Libby Priller 8, Gretta Miexel 9, Mikiya Roby 0, Savanna Dennig 8, Meghan Urbanski 3, Khalilah Abdullah 1, Makayla Weaver 0, Taylor Wright 0, Anija Payne 0, Megan Christianson 6. TOTALS: 11 9-12 35.

BRANDYWINE 41

Makenna Hartline 13, Michaela Hartline 0, Alyssa Bolen 3, Jaleesa Garner 2, Emily Erwin 16, Mia Stella 3, Makena Bowen 2, Rachael Szilagyi 2. TOTALS: 15 7-12 41.

Marian                         5    8  16    35

Brandywine              12  17  26    41

3-point goals: Marian 4 (Priller 2, Christianson 2), Brandywine 4 (Erwin 2, Stella, Bolen). Total fouls (fouled out): Marian 15 (none), Brandywine 11 (none). Shooting: Marian 11-of-47 for 23-percent, Brandywine 15-of-40 for 37-percent. Rebounding: Marian 35 (Urbanski 8), Brandywine 21 (Michaela Hartline 7). Turnovers: Marian 24, Brandywine 20.

Varsity records: Marian 4-10, Brandwine 6-1.