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STURGIS — Brandywine girls basketball coach Josh Hood understands there are going to be nights when his Lady Bobcats are going to be challenged. 

Friday’s championship game against the host team in the finals of the Sturgis Tournament was one of those games. Brandywine (7-0) survived a late Sturgis rally and hung on to record a 55-45 win over the Trojans.

“Sturgis coach (Andy Phillips) has those girls playing really well and they should be really proud of their effort. We’ve had games where we won by 40 points and suddenly tonight we were in a dogfight and had to play a full 32 minutes. Our legs were a little tired, but that has more to do with how well Sturgis played. It’s the first time we’ve gotten punched in the mouth all season. Give them (Sturgis) credit because they played a great game,” Hood said. 

Brandywine got off to a strong start, reeling off the game’s first seven points. Senior Miley Young led that charge by scoring four of her six points during that span. Senior Ireland Prekert drained a three pointer to put the Bobcats up 16-8 after one quarter. 

Adelyn Drotoz’s triple and Adeline Gill’s hoop underneath expanded Brandywine’s lead to 24-9 with just over five minutes left before halftime. Drotoz added another three moments later that gave the Bobcats a 29-13 advantage. Adeline Gill’s two free throws closed out the first-half scoring and sent Brandywine into the break with a 31-16 advantage. 

Sturgis managed to slow Brandywine down a bit in the third quarter at the offensive end. The Lady Trojans (5-4) began to find a little success breaking the Bobcats’ full-court pressure. However, Brandywine still managed to outscore Sturgis 8-6 during the period to grab a 39-22 lead entering the fourth quarter.

Sturgis showed great resilience during the final eight minutes, outscoring Brandywine 23-16. Madison Webb scored six of her team-high 15 points for the Lady Trojans in the fourth while junior teammate Angela Cary scored eight of her 12 points, including a triple. Cary also pulled down some big rebounds for Sturgis in the second half. Sturgis trailed Brandywine by as many as 22 points early in the final period before guard Sydney Bir’s bucket for the Lady Trojans lessened the final deficit to just 10 points. 

“We did a good job against their press and got some layups, but all of a sudden we freaked out a little and got the ball a little too deep in the corner. We made some mistakes that are uncharacteristic of us, but again that had a lot to do with Sturgis and the good game plan they came in with,” Hood said.

Brandywine was paced in the scoring column by Lily Gill with  11 points, while her older sister Adeline Gill finished with  10. Drotoz and Karleigh Byrd added nine points apiece for the winners, who were 23-of-66 from the floor and 5-for-7 at the  foul stripe. Sturgis shot 19-of-55 from the field and made 2-of-6 free-throw attempts. 

Despite being at a height disadvantage, Brandywine won the rebounding battle 30-24. Byrd snagged eight boards for the Lady Bobcats, while Adeline Gill and sophomore Lily Gill added seven apiece. Webb paced Sturgis with nine rebounds and 6-foot-0 freshman postplayer Cora Phillips added six.

Lily Gill and Byrd added three steals each and Niyah Mason added two.

“I was real proud of the resilience our girls showed in the second half. We dug a bit of a hole there in the first half. We are still learning, but our girls came back and got some key steals and pushed through in the final half and never gave up. We have some natural ability on the court. Brandywine is tough and puts lot of ball pressure on you,” said Sturgis coach Andy Phillips. 

Brandywine pressured Sturgis into 23 turnovers. The Lady Bobcats coughed the ball up just 12 times. 

The Lady Bobcats will practice over the weekend and jump right back into action on the road Monday at Division 1 Kalamazoo Central. Hood says the non-conference test will measure a lot.

“We want to play the best teams around. Not many Division 1 schools want to play Brandywine. We sent an email to the entire Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference and we got responses from three or four of them. We are thankful for them getting us on the schedule,” Hood said. 

Brandywine also has regular-season games scheduled with Stevensville-Lakeshore, St. Joseph and Kalamazoo Loy-Norrix who are all members of the SMAC, along with Kalamazoo Central.