By By ERIKA PICKLES and TOM NYHUIS / Niles Daily Star
NILES – Hot free throw shooting by Brandywine was the key to the Bobcats' 62-49 Lakeland Conference basketball victory over Buchanan Tuesday night.
In its home opener, Brandywine went 22-of-28 at the charity stripe to help lift the 'Cats to the win. Buchanan shot just 8-of-17.
"Our free throw shooting has been good. We work on it a lot," Brandywine coach Nathan Knapp said after the game.
The first half of the game stayed fairly close, as the advantage went no higher than eight points. Brandywine held a two point lead, 27-25 with 42 seconds to play in the first half. But in the final 24 seconds, the Bobcats scored five points, hitting 3-of-3 from the free throw line and a basket to take the seven point lead, 32-25, at the break.
Brandywine continued their scoring streak, going on a 15-0 run at the beginning of the third quarter. The Bobcats ended the third period with a demanding 47-34 lead.
In the final period, Brandywine went 11-of-14 from the line to seal the victory.
"We didn't play any defense in the first half. We didn't play any defense until there was four minutes to play in the game, which is a common theme for us. We decide to play defense sometimes a little to late. As a coach I need to do a better job stressing defensive rebounding because we haven't done that for two games in a row now," McBeth said.
"The team in general handled the pressure well. A year ago we couldn't handle the pressure," Knapp said.
Bill Bussey had a strong performance for the Bobcats, ending with a team high 17 points, including five 3-pointers. Caleb Frazier added 11 points, while Zak Bollenbacher had nine.
Buchanan's Derek Anglero heated up in the second half, scoring 13 of his team high 17 points. He also landed four 3-pointers on the night for the Bucks.
Buchanan did hold the rebounding edge, pulling down 35 boards as Marquis Hall finished the night with nine rebounds to go along with his 14 points.
Brandywine, as a team, hauled in 21 rebounds with Frazier, Matt Beaver and Joshoil Benjamin each collecting five a piece.
The win for the Bobcats improves the team to 2-2 on the season and 2-1 in conference play. Buchanan drops to 1-3 and 0-3 in Lakeland play.
Brandywine will travel to Delton Kellogg on Friday, while the Bucks will rest until a week from Thursday when they play in the Hartford Tournament.
Junior Varsity
Richie Reed's 15 points contributed to Buchanan's 46-34 win over Brandywine Tuesday.
Shane Bankston scored 11 for the Bobcats.
In Freshmen action, it was the Bucks edging out Brandywine 48-43 for the win.
Chris Woofter finished the night with 13 points for the Bucks and Jesse McCombs tallied 20 for the Bobcats.