By By ERIKA PICKLES / Niles Daily Star
NILES - It was evident from the first quarter that Brandywine's varsity basketball team was going to have problems handling Niles' inside and outside game.
The Vikings took an 85-54 win in their own Holiday Classic Tournament Tuesday evening, moving them on to face Coloma tonight at 8.
Brandywine will take on Lake Michigan Catholic, which fell to the Comets, 58-38, at 6 p.m.
Although Brandywine was able to put a quick nine points on the board in the first, an 18-0 run helped put the Vikes out of reach for the rest of the game.
Niles had a 20-9 lead after the first and a 38-22 lead at halftime.
In the second half, the Vikes extended the lead even more, ending the third ahead 65-24 before posting the final score. Both teams scored 20 points in the final period.
The Vikings got a lot of help from the bench, especially Danny Rodts who scored 16 points on the night and sank four three-pointers, three of them in the final period.
Parks was also pleased with the performance of senior Ben Hansen, who ended the night with 16 points, including nine points from the three-point arc.
Etzcorn led all scorers with 17 points. Thomas was the last Viking to score in double digits, bringing in 13 points.
For Brandywine, Billy McDonald led the team in scoring with 10 points, while Matt Wieger, who sank a three-pointer at the buzzer, ended with nine.
Though they didn't have the shooting from the arc that Niles did, Brandywine still had six three-pointers on the night, two from Wieger and McDonald and one each from Chris Casey and Adam Prescott.
Niles 20 38 65 85
Brandywine 9 22 34 54
NILES
Jordan Parks 0 0-0 0, Tom Robson0 3 0-0 9, Josh Moffitt 0 1-2 1, Ben Hansen 3 3 1-3 16, Danny Rodts 2 4 1-1 16, Nate Parks 0 0-0 0, Demetrius Phillips 1 0-0 2, Brandon Thomas 2 2 3-6 13, Nick Etzcorn 8 1-2 17, Pete Brandstatter 2 0-0 4, Lavette Walker 0-0-0 0, Nate Orr 2 0-0 4, Paul Dreher0 0-0 0, Mat Peters 1 1-5 3
BRANDYWINE
Justin Ely 1 1-3 3, Adam Prescott 1 1 0-0 5, Mat Wieger 1 2 1-3 9, Cory Barber 0 0-0 0, Billy McDonald 2 2 0-0 10, Caleb Frazier 4 0-2 8, D.J. Elrod 0 1-2 1, Chris Casey 0 1 2-2 5, Kyle Low 3 0-0 6, Matt Beaver 1 5-8 7, Ryan Hartman 0 0-0 0, Kevin Curran 0 0-0 0