Bobcats advance, Rangers fall in Division 3 District action

Published 5:40 pm Thursday, March 7, 2024

By Scott Hassinger

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NILES —Brandywine’s unselfish play and second-half defense spurred the Lady Bobcats to a 59-29 Division 3 district semifinal win at home over Buchanan Wednesday. 

Brandywine (21-1) advances to face Constantine (6-18) in Friday’s championship game at 6 p.m.

Constantine knocked off Cassopolis (19-4) 47-36 in the other semifinal contest. 

Brandywine switched to a man-to-man defense in the second half and held Buchanan to just nine points. 

Offensively, the Lady Bobcats were able to outscore the Bucks 22-9 in the final two quarters after building a 37-20 halftime lead. 

“It took us a bit to settle in. Buchanan got a game under their belt on Monday. It’s hard pressuring a team with a talented guard like LaBria (Austin). She’s two inches taller than anyone we have on the court so she does a good job of seeing over our traps and moving the ball for them,” said Niles Brandywine Coach Josh Hood. “In the second half, we made an adjustment to not trap her and to play a straight-up man-to-man defense. It says a lot when you hold a Gabe Miller-coached team to just nine points in the second half. I was just really proud of the unselfishness of our team tonight.”

Brandywine got a team-high 19 points from senior post player Kadence Brumitt. Miley Young added 13 for the Bobcats, Adeline Gill tossed in 10 and Ellie Knapp contributed seven points for the Bobcats, who made 25-field goal attempts and 5-of-12 free-throw tries. 

Knapp also had seven assists, three rebounds and five steals for Brandywine. 

Brumitt and Gill grabbed six rebounds for Brandywine. 

Buchanan (11-11) was led by Hannah Herman’s eight points, while Maddie Young finished with seven, Evyn Pruett five and Austin finished with just three points for the Bucks, who made 12 field-goal attempts and 3-of-3 free-throw attempts.   

Herman’s layup to start the game gave Buchanan a quick 2-0 lead, the Bucks’ lone advantage on the evening. 

But Brandywine quickly found its offensive groove and enjoyed a 20-13 advantage at the end of the first quarter. 

Brumitt scored 10 of her team-high 19 points for the Bobcats during the period.

A 17-7 run in the second period helped Brandywine increase its advantage to 37-20 entering halftime. Brumitt added four more points and Ellie Knapp and Young both drained three pointers to spark the Brandywine run.

Brandywine capitalized off four Buchanan turnovers in the third quarter as the Bobcats increased its lead to 52-23. 

“We’ve played against Josh Hood teams now for the past 11 years. Their pressure kind’ve gets stronger as the game progresses. They execute so well in the half-court, run their sets well and you have to be on the whole time,” said Buchanan Coach Gabe Miller.

“We battled lot of injuries and adversity this season. As a coach, one of the most enjoyable parts of the season are the big moments every kid on your team have in a game. Seeing different kids step up throughout the year was nice too. Our junior class has some good numbers. If they get into the gym and work then we’ll be ok.”

 

Falcons end Rangers’ season

A successful season came to a sudden halt in after a flood of mistakes for Cassopolis, co-champions in the Southwest 10 Conference, against Constantine.

Both teams had their struggles at the offensive end, especially Cassopolis, by missing several easy layups or shots in the paint. 

“We had too many defensive lapses and missed assignments. I just didn’t think we matched the energy Constantine had tonight,” said Cassopolis Coach Stephon Luckey. 

“As a whole, the season went well. This group was able to fight through adversity and win a share of the conference title. Our two seniors are very special. Atyanna was someone we ran our offensive and defensive system through and Ella really stepped it up for us as well.” 

Cassopolis jumped out to a 9-6 lead after the opening eight minutes. 

The Rangers got good looks inside early and scored eight points off layups and one putback. 

With a little over three minutes left in the second quarter, Constantine would tie the contest at 14-14 on a layup by Jaedyn Herlein. Sienna Salisbury’s short jumper moments later and two free-throws from Jaelyn Buglione put the Lady Falcons in front, 18-14 at halftime. 

Constantine extended its lead to seven points, 30-23 with four minutes left in the third quarter. But the Rangers fought back to within one point, 30-29 by the end of the stanza on back-to-back three pointers from sophomore guard Ryley Bowsher. 

Mayliah Flowers’ three pointer for Cassopolis with 5:54 left in the fourth quarter tied the game at 34-34.

Constantine pulled ahead for good by making 7-of-10 free-throw attempts in the waning minutes of the game. 

Senior Bella Cullifer had a key put back and made 5-of-8 charity tosses in the last 1:30 in helping Constantine pull the game out. 

Bowsher paced Cassopolis in scoring with 13 points, while Atyanna Alford had 12 and Ella Smith had six for the Rangers. 

Alford also had five rebounds, three steals and four assists. Bowsher added five boards for the Rangers. 

Cassopolis made 13 field-goal attempts and swished 6-of-12 free-throw attempts. 

Cullifer had a double-double for Constantine with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Jaedyn Herlein added 12 points, Buglione nine and Salisbury scored eight points for the Lady Falcons, who netted 18 field-goal attempts and 11-of-23 free-throw tosses. 

Constantine also got eight rebounds from Herlein.

“Our girls play in a very tough league and we get beat up a lot. It’s about building confidence in yourself and I think these girls are starting to do that. We showed our resilience tonight and never gave up,” said Constantine coach Derrick Outlaw.  

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