BUCHANAN — For the first 10 minutes of Friday night’s boys basketball game, Brandywine stuck close to the hometown Bucks.

In the end though the final score told the story of the remaining 22 minutes of the game.

Buchanan picked up its ninth Lakeland Conference win of the season with a 79-38 pounding of the Bobcats. The Bobcats fall to 2-7 in league play.

After one quarter of play Buchanan held a slim three point lead, 15-12, as the Bobcats played hard to hang with the quick and explosive Bucks.

Two minutes into the second quarter, Pierce Gleason hit one of his trio of 3-pointers in the game to bring the Bobcats to within a point, 19-18. From there it was all Bucks as they rolled off a 19-1 run to go up 38-19.

The game’s leading scorer, Jalen Brown, took control for the Bucks.

“Turnovers and we never answered their 19-0 run,” Brandywine coach Nathan Knapp said when asked about the turning point of the game. “It was like 21-19 and things were going good. I don’t know, pressure, we can’t handle adversity yet. We try, but when we got our backs backed up to the wall we never rebounded back from that.”
Buchanan coach Reid McBeth praised the Brandywine effort at the start of the game. “They hit some shots early, knocked some threes down and they ran that weave early on which I thought it took some energy out of our kids,” McBeth said. “It didn’t look like we came out with as much energy as we could have. I know our kids were excited for Winterfest but I don’t think we were as focused on the basketball aspect of the game and that is what it needs to be all about.”

Brown finished the game with 22 points hitting nine from the field and 4-of-4 from the free throw line. Savon Brown finished the night with 13 and Dustin Jones came off the bench in limited playing time to score 12. Buchanan went into the second half leading 40-23 and outscored the Bobcats 20-8 in the third quarter to leave no doubt of the out come with a 60-31 lead heading into the final eight minutes.

For the Bobcats it was 15 of 51 shooting, being out rebounded 44-28 and committing 24 turnovers, which the Bucks converted into 48 points.

Buchanan used a quick defensive full court press through much of the first three quarter of the game. But it wasn’t until the third quarter that McBeth was really pleased with the pressure that his team applied to the Bobcats.

“I don’t know what the stats will show but in that first half I thought that Brandywine went to the offensive boards extremely hard. They had three or four kids battling and I caught a few of my kids on our end standing and watching. When your at the top of the league everyone is going to come at you with their best effort and Brandywine came hard at us and at least we responded and went on that run. We have a lot of offensive weapons and a lot of kids that can put the ball in the basket,” he said.

For the Bobcats it was Gleason leading the team finishing the night with a team high 12 points. As a team Brandywine hit just 3-of-11 from the free throw line. Buchanan on the other hand was 12-of-16.

BRANDYWINE 38

Michael Shelton 2 0-0 4, Austin Searles 0 1-2 1, Courtian Gordon 0 0-4 0, Pierce Gleason 4 1-2 12, Mykal Toxopeus 3 0-0 8, Alex Erwin 3 1-2 7, Evan Hartman 2 0-0 4, Alexander Brooks 1 0-1 2, Michael Schoenleber 0 0-0 0, Alex Ulrickson 0 0-0 0 – Totals 15 3-11 38

BUCHANAN 79

Tyler Flynn 1 0-0 3, Dustin Jones 6 0-0 12, Savon Brown 5 3-3 13, Kevin Dey 3 0-0 7, Lyman Thomas 1 1-1 3, Blake Graber 0 0-1 0, Dallis Reynolds 3 1-2 7, Jalen Brown 9 4-4 22, Doug Freeman 3 0-1 6, Justin Henderson 1 3-4 6 – Totals 32 12-16 79

Brandywine 12 23 31 38

Buchanan 15 40 60 79

3-point baskets: Buchanan 3 (Tyler Flynn, Kevin Dey, Justin Henderson) Brandywine 5 (Pierce Gleason 3, Mykal Toxopeus 2) Team fouls: (fouled out): Buchanan 17 (none), Brandywine 15 (none). Varsity records: Buchanan 13-2, 9-0 Lakeland; Brandywine 6-11, 2-7 Lakeland