By By ERIKA PICKLES / Niles Daily Star
NILES – The Brandywine varsity basketball team may have lost Friday night's game against Berrien Springs by points, but the Bobcats' performance was victorious.
No. 3 Brandywine (4-3 in conference) hosted the No. 2 Shamrocks (6-1 in conference) in a Lakeland Conference , and fell to Berrien Springs in overtime, 70-66.
Brandywine head coach Nate Knapp was not upset one bit with his team, and stated it was their best performance of the season.
"I think our team finally woke up. We had a really good game against Edwardsburg and came out tonight and played even better against a tough Berrien Springs team," Knapp said after the game.
Knapp was very pleased with the fact that his team never gave up. Even being down by nine points a few different times in the game, Brandywine found way to catch back up and kept the game close the entire night.
"I have to give credit to Berrien. They never gave up. We just kept attacking them all night long," Knapp added.
Trailing 50-44 with just over two minutes left, Bill Bussey made a huge steal and a successful lay-up to cut the lead to four. Zak Bollenbacher ruined the Shamrocks' next possession with another steal and an easy bucket, bringing the score to 50-48 with two minutes to play.
An offensive foul on Berrien Springs' big man, Randolph Shaw, who stands 6-foot-8, worked to the Bobcats' advantage. Brandywine took the lead with 1:26 to play when Bussey bombed a 3-pointer, however, Berrien's Gregory Whitehead answered back with a three of his own, bringing the score to 53-51 with one minute to play.
Free throws and buckets were exchanged by both teams during the final 50 seconds. Two successful free throws by Whitehead with nine seconds left appeared to seal the win for Berrien, who led 56-53. But Brandywine's Matt Beaver was left wide open in the final three seconds and successfully sank a 3-pointer, throwing the game into overtime.
Early buckets by Kolby Wood and Whitehead helped keep the Shamrocks stay ahead during the extra period. But as minutes ticked off the clock, the Bobcats had no choice but to foul, sending Berrien to the line 18 times in the final four minutes. The Shamrocks made 14 free shots, which contributed to the final score.
"This was a total team effort tonight. I told the guys that we couldn't have one or two players who can really play. We needed all five and they did that tonight. Hats off to the kids," Knapp added.
Berrien Springs' Matt Demler had a game high 27 points, including three 3-pointers.
Bussey added 22 points for the Bobcats, also ending with three 3's. Zak Bollenbacher had 20 for Brandywine.
The Bobcats will host No. 1 Bridgman on Tuesday for another conference match-up.
Berrien Springs 11 23 39 56 – 70
Brandywine 5 22 36 56 – 66