By DON EDEN
Niles Daily Star

Brandywine juniors Lance Prescott and Jacob Frazier each posted doubles-doubles Monday evening to propel the Bobcats over the visiting Wildcats of Marcellus 62-55 in the season opener for both squads.

Frazier was Dwight Howard-like underneath with 26 points and 16 rebounds, while Prescott also grabbed 11 missed shots to go along with 19 tallies.

“We had a hard time posting up all night as (Jacob) Frazier is a very good player, but their size and speed won the game for them,” moaned Marcellus coach Troy Kahler. “Big teams will give us trouble this season, but we’ll win a lot if we come to play hard for 32 minutes and shoot better.”

Opening shooting jitters seemed to affect everyone as the first seven shots kept the scoreboard at zero until Prescott found success with a pair of free throws. An alley-oop dunk by Frazier broke a tie at four and a trey by Prescott closed the first quarter scoring to change an eight point apiece deadlock.

Prescott was successful on three charity tosses for a 16-10 Brandywine advantage and another slam by Frazier midway through the second stanza opened the lead to 23-15 before Marcellus found the range and took the lead (26-25) with 1:35 remaining before halftime on a basket by senior Kyle Kahler.

Again, Prescott came to the rescue for Brandywine as his final points before intermission gave him 15 and the hosts a 30-28 leading margin.

“These kids have worked really hard and have stressed to all of them about foul trouble,” Brandywine coach Nathan Knapp said. “We still have mental errors to eliminate, plus missed too many layups and free throws.”

After being outrebounded (20-12) in the first half, Frazier took control with a baker’s dozen caroms and 13-point performance in the second half as the practically all senior Marcellus team fell behind 38-29 before reserves Jon Schwartz and Brian Butchbaker each connected on a pair of shots.

The Wildcats actually took a 45-41 lead with ten seconds left until Frazier rebounded a miss to beat the buzzer with a layup.

“When (Jacob Mencl) got into foul trouble it hurt us since he is the only one to play inside and they went to the half court game,” Kahler noted. “We had trouble down low all night, but just didn’t shoot as well as we can.”

It took the visitors five minutes before finding the bottom of the net in the final period, but the bell wasn’t answered until senior Dustin Bell scored consecutive baskets with just over a minute left to increase the advantage to seven points at 56-49.

Prescott sealed the victory with a rebound basket after his own missed free throw with 33.3 on the clock and 60-53 on the scoreboard.

“I am definitely looking forward to see how the season goes as our guys will have success if we come to compete by playing hard and smart,” Knapp said. “Frazier will be double and triple teamed at times which will open somebody else and Bell came up big by playing hard all the time.”

Junior Joseph Godfrey led a balanced junior varsity Bobcat squad with 15 points as the preliminary game had a fourth quarter comeback by Brandywine to be the victors by a 49-41 score and the trifecta was completed by the freshmen 50-10 for the Bobcat victory.

MARCELLUS 55
Zac Eggerdine  2 1-2 6; Bryan Shelly  2 0-0 5; Vincent Sheetz 1 0-0 2; Kyle Kahler 6 3-4 17; Jon Sswartz 2 0-0 4; Christian Goodenoush  2  0-0 4; Brian Butchbaker 2 0-0 6; Jacob Mencl 3 5-6 11. TOTALS: 20 9-12 55
BRANDYWINE 62
Cody Udell 1 2-5 4;  Jesse McCombs 1 0-0 2;  Lance Prescott 6 5-10 19; Stone Hadley 1 0-0 2; Dustin Bell 4 0-1 9; Jacob Frazier 12 2-3 26. TOTALS: 25 9-19 62

Marcellus 8 28 45 55
Brandywine 11 30 43 62
3-point baskets: Marcellus 6 (Butchbaker 2, Kahler 2, Shelly 1, Eggerdine 1), Brandywine 3 (Prescott 2, Bell 1). Total fouls: Marcellus 17, Brandywine 12. Fouled out: None. Varsity records: Marcellus 0-1, Brandywine 1-0