By By SCOTT NOVAK / Niles Daily Star
CENTREVILLE – Improved play offensively was not enough as Brandywine lost to Bloomingdale in the consolation game of the Centreville-Constantine tournament on Tuesday night.
The Lady Bobcats (0-2) nearly doubled their offensive production from Monday night, but gave up 18 more points defensively in a 58-52 loss to the Lady Cardinals.
Both teams got off to a slow start, but Bloomingdale managed to take a 13-12 lead after one period of play.
The score remained a two-point deficit heading into halftime, but it wasn't from a lack of effort by both teams to gain control of the contest.
Bloomingdale (1-1) built up a five-point lead midway through the second quarter, only to have the Lady Bobcats come storming back to make it 27-25 at intermission.
Brandywine got off to a hot start in the second half, grabbing a 32-21 lead with 6:38 to play on Katie Smallwood's third basket of the period.
The Lady Cardinals reclaimed the lead on their next possession and then tried to pull away, opening up a seven-point bulge with 2:36 remaining on a bucket by sophomore Chelsea Gile.
Bloomingdale took a 42-37 advantage into the final eight minutes.
Emily Low scored back-to-back buckets for the Lady Bobcats to cut the lead to 45-43 with 5:45 to play and with 2:07 remaining in the contest, Nicole Newman made it a one-point game, 52-51.
That would be as close as Brandywine would get as Erica Bosby gave the Lady Cardinals a 56-52 lead with 24.1 seconds remaining and following a missed three throw, she grabbed the rebound and scored with 4.7 left in the game.
"Offensive rebounding just killed us," Brandywine coach Mark Zache said. "Everytime we would get a stop, they would get an offensive rebound and score. We are going to work on it."
Zache said he was pleased with the improvement his squad made offensively, but was disappointed that the defense did not play as well.
"We got our offense figured out, now we have to get our defense back," he said. "If we can put the two together we will be fine."
Senior Katie Smallwood had a big night for the Lady Bobcats as she scored a game-high 24 points.
Brandywine also got 10 points from Newman and eight points from Jennifer Marshman. Low finished with seven points.
Britny Adams led Bloomingdale with 23 points. Giles finished with 12.
The Lady Bobcats are back in action Friday night as they open the home and Lakeland Conference portion of their schedule against Cassopolis (0-1). Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.
BRANDYWINE 52
Emily Low 3 1-2 7; Nicole Newman 3 2-2 10; Kendra Zache 0 0-0 0; Nicole Boeve 0 0-0 0; Britney Fryman 0 0-0 0; Katie Smallwood 11 2-2 24; Alexa Perry 0 0-0 0; Jennifer Marshman 2 3-8 8; Jenna Harris 2 0-0 4. Totals: 19 8-14 52
BLOOMINGDALE 58
Britny Adams 9 2-3 23; Brittany Douglas 2 0-1 4; Molly Forbes 5 1-4 11; Chelsea Gile 5 0-0 12; Caitlin Bradac 0 0-0 0; Nichole DeJonge 0 0-0 0; Teresa Marin 0 0-0 0; Erica Bosby 4 1-4 9. Totals: 21 5-12 58
Brandywine 12 13 12 15 – 52
Bloomingdale 13 14 15 16 – 58
3-point baskets: Emily Low (BW), Jennifer Marshman (BW), Britny Adams (BL) 2; Chelsea Gile (BL) 2. Total fouls: Brandywine 14, Bloomingdale 14. Fouled out: None. Technical fouls: None.