By AMELIO RODRIGUEZ
Niles Daily Star

BRIDGMAN – The Brandywine Lady Bobcats are once again Class C District champions as they defended their title from last season with a convincing 57-28 victory over the Lady Bison of New Buffalo.

For the second game in a row, Brandywine forced its opponent into as many turnovers as points scored, forcing the Bison into 28 turnovers for the game.

Just like it did on Wednesday night, Brandywine came out of the gates a little sluggish as it held a 5-2 lead with three minutes to play in the first quarter.

The Bobcats would double their point total over the last three minutes to take a 10-3 into the second quarter.

The second quarter felt like the Carlie Newman highlight reel as the Brandywine sophomore scored 17 of her game-high 25 points in the quarter.

With the 25 points scored Friday night, Newman became the single season scoring leader in Brandywine history.

“She’s a gym rat. I have been watching her play since the fourth grade, and watching her play in the summer, and it’s the results of her hard work since she has been a little kid,” said Hood about her new record.

Newman’s second quarter helped put the Bison into an insurmountable hole of which they could not dig their way out.

The Bobcats outscored the Bison 25-9 in the period on their way to a 35-12 halftime lead. Also contributing in the quarter for the ‘Cats were Morgan Smallwood and Lauren Leonard with four points each.

The Bobcats would outscore the Bison by a count of 8-5 in the third period for a 43-17 lead heading into the final eight minutes.

With Brandywine in control of the game, coach Josh Hood would empty his bench to make sure that everyone would get to be a part of this district championship.

Madison Pellow and Kelsey Prestly would lead Brandywine through the final eight minutes, scoring six and four points respectively.

“This is all about the girls, they’re great players. Any time that you have nine girls that have worked as hard as they have, and are as talented as they are, and they all come together, they don’t worry about stats, and you don’t have a lot of egos … they were great a long time ago, and they are really good right now,” said Hood about his teams repeating as district champs.

Brandywine, ranked No. 2 in the state, improves to 21-1 on the season and will play Tuesday night at 6 p.m. against Schoolcraft at Schoolcraft High School in the Class C Regional.

Schoolcraft beat Galesburg-Augusta 55-54 in overtime.

BRANDYWINE 57
Carlie Newman 9 4-6 25, Nicole Newman 0 0-2 0, Mackenzie Shelton 0 1-4 1, Kelsey Prestly 4 0-1 8, Morgan Smallwood 2 1-2 6, Lauren Leonard 3 0-1 6, Madison Pellow 2 3-4 7, Morgan Antus 1 0-0 3, DD’Nisha Zona 0 1-2 1
NEW BUFFALO 28
Amy Golbiewski 1 0-0 2, Hanna Grosse 0 0-1 0, Molly Griffin 1 1-2 3, Korbi Forker 1 1-2 3, Breanna Workman 2 1-4 5, Lena Madison 1 0-1 2, Sarah Campbell 4 2-5 11, Sarah Bardusk 1 0-0 2

3-Pointers: Brandywine 5, (C. Newman 3, Smallwood, Antus) New Buffalo 1 (Campbell)