EDWARDSBURG — The Brandywine girls basketball team received the honor of being ranked No. 1 (Class C) in the first poll of the season on Tuesday.

On the court, Edwardsburg almost stole the spotlight from the Bobcats in a game for first place in the Lakeland Conference. Brandywine eventually escaped with a 45-43 win to improve to 10-0 overall and 5-0 in the league.

The two-time defending conference champions extended its conference win streak to 34 games.

“I thought (Edwardsburg) played to win and played free there at the end,” said Brandywine coach Josh Hood. “We were very uptight. We got the ball into the hands of the girls that we wanted to get the ball to there. We just didn’t knock down the free throws.”

In the final 35 seconds, Brandywine missed three front ends of 1-and-1s giving Edwardsburg a chance to stay in the game. Trailing 44-41, the Eddies’ Sarah D’Amico shot a 3-pointer with :08 left which hit off the front of the rim.

Carlie Newman got the rebound for the Bobcats and was fouled with :05.6 remaining. She hit the second of two free throws to give to seal the win for Brandywine. D’Amico scored on a rebound basket as time expired to cap the game’s scoring. Edwardsburg had no time-outs so Brandywine allowed the Eddies to go fullcourt uncontested.

“We had D’Amico with an open shot,” said Edwardsburg coach Nicole Cartwright about her team’s execution in the final seconds. “I’ll put the ball in her hands every time. It’s not the fact that she missed the shot, it’s the fact that we had a lot of turnovers (14) and we allowed them a lot of offensive boards.”

Brandywine appeared in control after Rachael Ort hit a 3-pointer to give the Bobcats a 42-29 lead with 6:33 left in the game. But the Eddies refused to stay down, gradually chipping into the lead with great free-throw shooting in the fourth quarter (8-for-8).

“The girls really listened,” Cartwright said. “We talked at halftime about taking the ball to the hole. At the half, we had been to the line only twice. In the second half, we shot 20 free throws. We attacked and got fouled. That was a big difference.”

D’Amico scored 15 points and Ashley Streb added 12 to lead the Eddies, who dropped to 4-1 in the league and 6-4 overall.

Brandywine, which last trailed in the game at 4-3, got points in the paint and on the perimeter. Points inside came from Madison Pellow, who finished with 13 points and eight rebounds. Pellow stopped an 8-0 Edwardsburg run when she scored with 1:44 left in the game to give Brandywine a 44-37 lead.

“Madison is a gamer,” Hood said. “She was mad with herself for missing some lay-ups early. We kept feeding her and she took over in the second and third quarter and she kind of broke the ice when she made that basket when we were up five in fourth quarter.”

The Bobcats totaled six 3-pointers-four from Ort, which were all of her field goals. Newman added nine points and eight rebounds.

“It’s a big win on the road in a tough environment,” Hood said. “Edwardsburg was gunning for us.”

BRANDYWINE 45

Mackenzie Shelton 1 0-3 2, Brooke Smith 2 2-2 7, Madison Pellow 5 3-5 13, Rachael Ort 4 0-0 12, Carlie Newman 2 4-7 9, Mikayla Kemp 0 0-0 0, Victoria Knight 1 0-1 2, Tiarra Hullinger 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 15 9-18 45

EDWARDSBURG 43

Sarah D’Amico 4 7-8 15, Mariah Murphy 2 1-2 5, Alexis Blake 2 1-3 5, Brooke Portwood 1 0-0 2, Ashley Streb 3 6-6 12, Maddi Holmes 0 0-0 0, Katelynn Rogers 1 2-2 4, Olivia Hack 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 13 17-21 43

Brandywine 11 23 37 45

Edwardsburg 8 15 29 43

3-point baskets: Brandywine 6 (Ort 4, Newman, Smith), Edwardsburg (none). Total fouls (fouled out): Brandywine 15 (none), Edwardsburg 15 (none). Shooting: Brandywine 15-of-47 for 32-percent, Edwardsburg 13-of-36 for 36-percent. Rebounding: Brandywine 24 (Pellow and Newman 8 each), Edwardsburg 26 (Blake 7). Turnovers: Brandywine 8, Edwardsburg 14. Varsity records: Brandywine 10-0, 5-0 Lakeland Conference; Edwardsburg 6-4, 4-1 Lakeland Conference