EDWARDSBURG — With the game hanging in the balance after one half of play, Brandywine senior Lauren Leonard stepped up her game in the third quarter and helped lead the Bobcats to a huge 58-44 victory over host Edwardsburg.

Leading just 28-25 at the intermission after allowing a 10-point advantage to evaporate in the second quarter, Leonard scored eight consecutive points for Brandywine (9-1, 6-0 Lakeland) as the Bobcats increased their advantage to 13-points by the end of the period.

Morgan Smallwood got the Bobcats on the scoreboard first in the second half as she tossed in a bucket. Leonard followed with the next four baskets over a span of just over three minutes to increase the Brandywine advantage to nine, 38-29.

Carlie Newman’s 3-pointer with 2:59 showing on the clock in the third period extended the lead to double digits and the Bobcats never looked back.

In the final stanza, Edwardsburg battled back like it did in the second quarter, but was never able to get any closer than nine points and a late Brandywine run allowed the Bobcats to escape the Lakeland Conference showdown with a 13-point victory.

In the opening quarter it looked like it was going to be all Bobcats as Brandywine quickly jumped out to a 6-2 lead. The advantaged reached 11 points, 17-6, with 25 seconds remaining in the first quarter on a 3-pointer by Smallwood.

The Eddies (7-3, 5-1 Lakeland) would not let the Bobcats get away that easy and they battled their way back into it thanks in part to the play of Emily Kozinski in the paint.

Trailing 22-12, Kozinski knocked down a shot to cut the lead to eight and then following that up with another inside basket to make it 22-18 with 3:18 to go in the first half.

Another Kozinski bucket with 2:57 left in the quarter cut the lead to 23-20 and when Sarah D’Amico stroked a 3-pointer 26 seconds later the game was knotted at 26-26.

A quick 5-0 spurt by the Bobcats got the lead up to 28-23 before Kozinski capped a produced quarter with a basket with just over 21 seconds left to make it a three-point game at the half.

“Lauren is a first team all-conference player back and she really stepped it up,” Brandywine coach Josh Hood said. “Last week she was pretty upset about some of the missed lay-ups and stuff like that, but that’s what we expect from our leadership. Tonight, our senior captain played her best game of her career on the big stage.”

Leonard finished with 12 points, while teammate Carlie Newman poured in a game-high 24 points for the Bobcats. Morgan Smallwood added six points.

Kozinski finished with 14 points to lead the Eddies, who also got 10 points from Rachel Vite and eight points from D’Amico.

“Our No. 1 goal all season long is to eliminate turnovers,” Edwardsburg coach Nicole Cartwright said. “The team with the fewest turnovers is going to win the game. They had fewer turnovers and they were victorious tonight. That’s a big key for us and we have got to clean up our game a little bit.”

The Bobcats got the better of it at the free throw line where they were 21-of-30 compared to just 4-of-6 for the Eddies. Edwardsburg was whistled for 25 fouls compared to just nine for Brandywine.

Edwardsburg also won the JV contest against Brandywine, 32-23.

Olivia Hack led the Eddies with 11 points. Teryn Williams added 10.

Brandywine was paced by Victoria Knight’s 10 points. Hanna Horst finished with four.

BRANDYWINE 58

Carlie Newman 6 9-10 24; Rachel Ort 0 1-2 1; Morgan Antus 0 0-0 0; Mackenzie Shelton 1 2-6 4; Kelsey Prestly 1 4-4 6; Morgan Smallwood 3 0-0 7; Lauren Leonard 4 4-7 12; Madison Pellow 2 0-2 4, Saranda Lary 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 17 20-31 58

EDWARDSBURG 44

Rachel Vite 4 2-4 10; Emily Kozinski 6 2-2 14; Hannah Hack 1 0-0 2; Sarah D’Amico 3 0-0 8; Ashley Streb 3 0-0 6; Mariah Murphy 2 0-0 4; Brooke Portwood 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 19 4-6 44

Brandywine 17 28 48 58

Edwardsburg 8 25 35 44

3-point baskets: Brandywine 3 (Newman 2, Smallwood), Edwardsburg 2 (D’Amico 2). Total fouls: Brandywine 9, Edwardsburg 25. Fouled out: Hack (E), Streb (E), Murphy (E). Varsity records: Brandywine 9-1, 6-0 Lakeland; Edwardsburg 7-3, 5-1 Lakeland