By By ERIKA PICKLES / Niles Daily Star
NILES – In its first conference game of the season, the Brandywine girls' varsity basketball team picked up its first win of the season after posting a 49-43 victory over visiting Cassopolis Friday night.
The Bobcats competed in the Centreville Tournament on Monday and Tuesday and fell to both the host Bulldogs and Bloomingdale in its opening two games of the season.
"We had jitters when we first came out tonight, you could tell. But I think it was just from the girls playing their first conference game and playing in front of the crowd. They aren't used to this yet," Brandywine head coach Mark Zache said.
The jitters were obvious in the first quarter as the Rangers marched to an early 4-0 lead. After tying the score at six, and taking a 10-9 lead at the 2:23 mark, Cass was able to pull ahead once again and carry a 15-11 lead into the second.
That's when things looked Brighter for the Bobcats, who scored the first nine points of the quarter as the Rangers remained scoreless for the first four minutes.
Buckets by Alexa Perry, Kendra Zache, Jennifer Marshman and Emily Low helped lift Brandywine to a 28-20 lead entering halftime.
"I was not pleased with our play in the first half. We didn't make very good decisions with our passing," Cassopolis coach Floyd Fosten said.
The Rangers had only seven players dressed for Friday's game, with All-State honorable mention point guard Michelle James and 6-foot-2 freshman Victoria Robison both out due to disciplinary problems.
"That makes a big difference when you only have seven girls. We played zone a lot in the first half because I didn't want to wear the girls out. Usually we trap and full court press, but because of our situation we couldn't do that until later in the game," Fosten explained.
Brandywine kept its intensity up in the second half, but got off to a slow start in the third. Nicole Newman put the first points on the board in the quarter with just over five minutes on the clock. Low, Katie Smallwood and Perry also contributed points, allowing Brandywine to extend its lead to 38-28 entering the fourth.
The Bobcats quickly saw their lead diminish as the Rangers stepped up their game, especially with the help of Damonica Kelly, who bombed three 3-pointers in the last minute of the game. Cassopolis' pressure defense caused Brandywine to turn the ball over several times and even cut the lead to just four points, 44-40, with 38 seconds left.
Two made free throws by Zache and a steal and made lay-up kept Brandywine ahead and sealed the win for the Bobcats.
Fosten was pleased with his team's play in the final minutes of the game.
"If we were able to play with that kind of intensity the entire 32 minutes, the game would have been a different story. But Brandywine played very well tonight. They were on top of their game and did a nice job," Fosten said.
Zache was also pleased with his team's performance and said they have improved just from the two games earlier this week.
"Wednesday we had a great practice. The girls knew we had a lot of work to do and they were ready. We knew what we had to do in order to prepare for this game and the girls did everything we went over. We knew we had to stop Cass' shooting, because they like to shoot. We also knew they would be quick. The girls overall did an awesome job of focusing and the seniors really stepped up for us," Zache said.
Smallwood led the Bobcats in scoring with 14 points, Marshman had 12 and Zache and Perry each added seven.
For Cass, Kelly led all scorers with 14 points, while Kenya House had 12.
Brandywine, now 1-3, will return to conference action on Thursday at Berrien Springs. Tip off is set for 7:30 p.m.
In junior varsity action, the Brandywine girls' basketball team walked away with a 40-19 victory over Cassopolis.
For the Bobcats, Delaina Schroeder led the team with nine points. Morgan Smallwood had eight and Teila Smith and Shawna Bromley each had six.
Sasha Lanier led the Rangers with 10 points, while Paige Cole and Kaylin Ivens each had four.
BRANDYWINE … 49
Emily Low 1 2-1 4; Nicole Newman 1 1-0 2; Kendra Zache 1 9-5 7; Nicole Boeve 0 0-0 0; Britney Fryman 0 0-0 0; Kourtni Hadley 0 0-0 0; Katie Smallwood 5 8-4 14; Alexa Perry 2 1 2-0 7; Adrianna Rudlaff 0 0-0 0; Jennifer Marshman 6 1-0 12; Jenna Harris 0 0-0 0. Totals: 16 2 23-11 29
CASSOPOLIS … 43
Damonica Kelly 5 3 3-1 14; Robin Danzy 0 0-0 0; Tiffany Williams 2 2-0 4; Kenya House 3 7-6 12; Taira Williams 3 2-1 7; Taletha Andrews 0 0-0 0; Keondra Williams 0 0-0 0. Totals: 13 3 14-8 43.
BRANYWINE 11 28 38 – 49
CASSOPOLIS 15 20 28 – 43