NILES — In his 11 years of coaching at Brandywine, Josh Hood said this year’s girls basketball team is one of the more versatile teams the Bobcats have had.

The team’s versatility was shown as it improved its record 10-0 with a 66-30 win over New Buffalo Tuesday night.

For three quarters, Hood thought his team played well. His only disappointment was giving up 15 points in the second quarter. Also, in the second quarter, Brandywine got into foul trouble after their bench of nine girls lost their legs.

The Bobcats scored 21 points in the first quarter, 21 in the second, 20 in the third, before finishing with five points in the final eight minutes of play.

Five different Brandywine players hit  3-pointers in the contest. Megan Schmidt and Bethany Duval each hit a pair. Senior Alexis Rhodes ended the night with a team-high of 17 points.

“If you key on one or two girls, you know the other girls can hit threes,” Hood said of his team’s versatility.” All eight have the green light.

Hood also noticed how unselfish his team has played in its last two performances, including a 45-17 win over Buchanan.

“Nobody on this team cares about stats and individual performances what they care about is being 10-0,” Hood said. “At the halfway point, not a lot of teams in the state are probably sitting at 10-0, but we are not satisfied.”

Moving forward, Hood wants his team to clean up its second quarter, claiming they have yet to play a full 32 minutes and will focus on sustaining energy going into the second half if they have a large lead over their opponents.

New Buffalo, a team with young talent, came into the game with an 8-1 record, but Brandywine still reached a running clock.

Offensively, Hood said his team has been good at navigating a zone offense and even when New Buffalo transitioned to a triangle-and-two defense and box-and-one defense, his players were wide open for 3-pointers.

“We are in a system where if you miss the shot, you keep shooting. It is non-stop shooting,” Hood said. “They always have the green light. We were very unselfish again tonight. There were extra passes. Girls passed up good shots for great shots, that says a lot about them and their commitment to being successful.”

In the boys game, Brandywine’s 56-40 victory over New Buffalo, head coach Nathan Knapp was looking for a spark.

“As a coach, you don’t like to make excuses,” Knapp said. “I am not going to make an excuse. Our kids weren’t ready to play, and we overlooked New Buffalo.”

The game opened with Brandywine taking a one-point lead over the Bison in the first quarter. Senior Jaelen Briggs was the only Brandywine player to get on the board with a 3-pointer. He ended the night with two.

Coming out of the locker room with a 30-18 lead over the Bison, the Bobcats allowed New Buffalo to make a slight comeback with 15 points. Brandywine scored eight points in the third quarter, as Knapp made consistent substitutions.

“We weren’t attacking, and we were making lazy across court passes,” Knapp said of his team’s third-quarter play. “We were trying to force it, and we had seams in the zone all night that we didn’t attack. When we finally attacked them, it started opening up the game a little bit.”

Kendall Chrismon ended the night with a team-high of 20 points, followed by Caleb Byrd and Briggs, who finished with 12 points respectively. All Brandywine players made it onto the court in the victory.

“We have 14 kids, and they all do a great job at practice,” Knapp said. “Some of the kids are learning some stuff, and I’ve seen good things from the kids tonight when they went out there. Looking for that spark as a coach, you are trying to find it.”

Post-game, Knapp delivered a message he hopes his team will believe.

“You are going to have nights where nothing goes your way and you are going to have to work twice as hard and keep climbing that hill,” he said. “You got to work your way back up and keep trying to find that spark.”