BUCHANAN — The final score will read that visiting Brandywine defeated Buchanan by 31 points to extend its Lakeland Conference winning streak to 38 straight games.

But the Bucks didn’t allow the Bobcats to just roll into their gym and run them out of the building.

The game was quite competitive until a 13-1 run to end the third quarter sealed the 67-36 victory.

Through the first two and a half quarters, Buchanan (9-8, 6-4 Lakeland) stayed within striking distance.

Despite a trio of 3-pointers in the opening quarter, including two by Mackenzie Shelton, the Bobcats held just a 16-7 advantage as the two teams headed to the second period.

Brandywine (16-1, 9-0 Lakeland) opened the second quarter with a 7-0 spurt and quickly turned its nine-point advantage into a 20-point lead, 32-12.

The Bucks scored the final bucket of the first half and trailed 32-14 heading to the locker room.

In the third quarter, it was Buchanan’s turn to make a run.

After Brandywine increased the lead to 36-14, baskets by Amanda Anglero and Ashley Simpson, the lead shrunk to 18 points. Two free throws by Anglero and a steal and score by Erin Glavin midway through the third quarter cut the lead to 36-22 with 4:23 left in the stanza.

It was all Brandywine from that point on.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Shelton quickly pushed the lead back up to 20 points. Her second triple with 2:04 to play in the quarter made it a 45-23 contest.

The Bobcats finished the quarter on a 13-1 run that gave Brandywine a 49-23 advantage.

Glavin stopped the run with the first basket of the fourth quarter, but the Bucks never seriously challenged Brandywine in the final eight minutes.

“It was a very physical game tonight and we couldn’t overcome the physicalness,” Buchanan coach Dave Cleveland said. “We tried, but we couldn’t overcome that. There is a reason why they are No. 4 in the state. They play very good defense, very good help-side defense and they find their open teammates.”

Shelton finished with a game-high 16 points for the Bobcats, who also got 14 points off the bench from Victoria Knight and 13 points from Carlie Newman, who had an off shooting night.

“I’m a perfectionist that’s no secret and there a lot of things we can improve on from this game, but Buchanan has been really hot and playing well,” Brandywine coach Josh Hood said. “So for us to come on the road to their homecoming game and score 67 says a lot about our kids.

“I think we are improving offensively. The question mark is still defensively. We still are not getting stops. We’re pretty happy trading baskets instead of getting stops. That’s what we are trying to fix in practice and we thought we did that this week. But again, we had too many breakdowns for it being two weeks away from the post season.”

The Bobcats now travel to Coloma Monday night in its final tune up before the showdown with Edwardsburg Friday night.

BRANDYWINE 67

Carlie Newman 6 0-0 13; Rachael Ort 2 1-3 7; Mackenzie Shelton 5 2-4 16; Tia Hullinger 0 1-2 1; Victoria Knight 7 0-1 14; Brooke Smith 1 0-0 3; Mikayla Kemp 0 0-0 0; Madison Pellow 5 3-4 13. TOTALS: 26 7-14 67

BUCHANAN 36

TateAnna Hinds 2 0-0 4; Robyn Clark 0 0-0 0; Alexis Meahl 2 0-0 4; Erin Glavin 4 0-0 9; Amanda Anglero 3 4-6 10; Maddy Vorrath 1 0-0 3; Ashley Simpson 2 2-2 6; Maddison Prillwitz 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 14 6-8 36

Brandywine 16 32 49 67

Buchanan 7 14 23 36

3-point baskets: Brandywine 8 (Newman, Ort 2, Shelton 4, Smith), Buchanan 2 (Glavin, Vorrath). Total fouls (fouled out): Brandywine 11 (none), Buchanan 13 (none). Varsity records: Brandywine 16-1, 9-0 Lakeland; Buchanan 9-8, 6-4 Lakeland