BUCHANAN – Buchanan boys basketball coach Reid McBeth inserted Justin Henderson into the starting lineup to start the second half of Friday’s Lakeland Conference game against Brandywine.

The move paid off as Henderson helped the Bucks pull away from the Bobcats in a game won by Buchanan, 51-41.

Henderson scored six of his 11 points to start the third quarter as Bucks increased their lead from 25-22 to 31-23 with 4:44 left in the third. Brandywine wouldn’t get the deficit under eight points the rest of the game.

“That was a different lineup that we hadn’t used this year,” said McBeth about his second half strategy. “We went with (Henderson), Tyler (Flynn) and Lyman (Thomas) on the perimeter and Kevin (Dey) and Dallis (Reynolds) inside. It gave us three perimeter threats and they were giving us the perimeter. It was nice to see Justin come out and get a few easy baskets for us.”

Another bench player that made an impact for the Bucks for Doug Freeman. His steal and

dunk gave Buchanan a 38-26 lead with 1:47 left in the third quarter. Freeman finished with nine points and four rebounds.

“(Freeman and Henderson) are two pretty talented offensive kids,” McBeth said. “We’ve kind of toyed on and off deciding whether those guys are going to come off the bench or start. At this point, it’s nice to have that production off the bench. The guys who are starting right now are giving us good minutes and we stay strong as a threat offensively when we give our starters a break.”

In an attempt to slow down Buchanan’s momentum, Brandywine coach Nathan Knapp called two timeouts in the second half. The first timeout came with his team down, 34-23, with 3:21 left in the third. Knapp huddled up his team again two minutes into the fourth quarter with Buchanan leading, 43-28.

“We started to hit the panic button,” said Knapp, whose team dropped to 1-9 overall and 0-2 in the Lakeland Conference. “That’s what that last timeout was for. I told our team to keep doing the stuff that we do and don’t fall apart. We can’t hit three 3’s during one possession and be right back in the game. We just had to get baskets and then get stops and try to get back into the game.”

Brandywine, which trailed 22-12 with 3:58 left in the second quarter, fought back into the game and trailed only 25-22 with 6:00 left in the third quarter after getting a steal and basket from Courtlan Gordon.

“We played with a lot of character,” Knapp said. “We don’t look like a 1-9 team right now. We’ve got to get over that hump. We’re a few plays a way from getting things to go our way. We’ve just got to keep working. I felt we did a good job of handling the basketball against their pressure and we attacked the basket.”

Austin Knapp scored 13 points to lead Brandywine. Pierce Gleason and Alex Ulrickson each added eight points.

Reynolds scored 11 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Bucks, who improved to 7-3 overall and 3-0 in the Lakeland Conference. Dey added 10 points.

 

BRANDYWINE 41

Pierce Gleason 8, Alex Ulrickson 8, Brock Hartline 2, Michael Shelton 4, Courtlan Gordon 2, Austin Knapp 13, Andrew Duckett 4, Zach Schmidt 0, Trent Moskwinski 0. TOTALS: 14 9-18 41

BUCHANAN 51

Kevin Dey 10, Tyler Flynn 5, Dallis Reynolds 11, Alex Leiter 0, Lyman Thomas 5, Justin Henderson 11, Doug Freeman 9, Brandon Gillam 0, Blake Graber 0, Alex Guzman 0. TOTALS: 20 7-14 51

 

Brandywine 8 20 28 41

Buchanan 17 25 39 51

3-point goals: Brandywine 4 (Knapp 2, Gleason, Ulrickson), Buchanan 4 (Dey 2, Flynn, Thomas). Total fouls (fouled out): Brandywine 18 (Shelton), Buchanan 17 (none). Shooting: Brandywine 14-of-43 for 32-percent, Buchanan 20-of-48 for 42-percent. Rebounding: Brandywine 27 (Gleason, Ulrickson, Duckett 4 each), Buchanan 31 (Flynn and Reynolds 7 each). Turnovers: Brandywine 17, Buchanan 13