On Friday night the Brandywine girls’ varsity basketball program recognized Nancy Lowery in honor of her late husband Maylon Lowery, who was to be part of the Bobcats’ coaching staff before he lost his battle with cancer.

Both head coaches wore suits and sneakers in recognition of Coaches vs. Cancer, and Brandywine broke out its pink uniforms again.

The Bobcats rolled to an easy 52-20 Lakeland Conference victory over visiting Cassopolis.

Brandywine (13-1, 8-0 Lakeland) came out of the gates strong scoring the first nine points of the contest led by Kelsey Prestly, who was celebrating her 18th birthday, as she dropped six of the first nine.

The ’Cats built a commanding 18-3 lead in the first period with all of the Rangers’ points coming from the free throw line.

Prestly led the way for Brandywine with nine in the quarter, followed by five from Morgan Smallwood and three each from Carlie Newman and Mackenzie Shelton.

Savannah Sullivan made two free throws for Cassopolis, while Jocelyn Transou had the other one.

The second quarter had to be just like déjà vu for the visitors from Cassopolis as Brandywine once again scored the first nine points of the quarter before the Rangers could dent the scoreboard. The Rangers would score their first basket of the game and their only points of the quarter with 1:07 remaining in the first half of play on a basket by Transou.

Brandywine extended its lead to a comfortable 33-5 halftime advantage.

The Bobcats were led in the quarter by Newman with seven, Madison Pellow with five and Lauren Leonard with three. However, it was the 23 turnovers they forced in the first half that helped lead to the lopsided halftime score.

“We stress defense, and our girls did a good job of playing defense tonight to hold a team to only five points in a half. That means we did our job,” said Brandywine coach Josh Hood.

The second half started with more of the same as the Bobcats outscored the Rangers 14-7 in the third and forced a running clock.

With the score 47-12 heading into the final stanza and the clock running, Cassopolis found itselve in an impossible situation.

Freshman guard Tammy Lee, behind a lot of hustle and aggressive play, was able to force a couple turnovers of her own and turned them into some easy points as she led all scorers in the final period with six points.

The Rangers would outscore the Bobcats over the final eight minutes by the count of 8-5.

Newman led all scorers with 14 points and six assists in limited minutes, but it was the play of Brandywine’s “three headed monster” on the blocks that led the way for the Bobcats as Prestly, Leonard and Pellow combined for 25 points, over 20 rebounds and several steals.

Brandywine was able to get a lot of girls some valuable minutes, which is important as they are still without guard Rachael Ort, who suffered an ankle injury on Monday night in the game against Mendon.

“We have some concerns with Rachael being out and we have to build some depth. Our bench got some opportunities to get in and hopefully get better and down the stretch. If we are without Rachael for a while we have got to have some girls step up,” said Hood. “We as coaches are going to have to coach them up as we have a game on Tuesday against a state-ranked St. Joe team, but our girls are hungry and they are excited to be able to play such a good team this next week.”

Brandywine remains undefeated in conference play and will host the St. Joe Bears on Tuesday night in a non-conference contest. Cassopolis falls to 6-7 on the season and will host Buchanan next Friday night.

CASSOPOLIS 20

Tammy Lee 3 0-0 6; Savannah Sullivan 0 2-2 2; Lela Broussard 0 0-0 0; Jocelyn Transou 3 3-5 10; Anne Seem 1 0-0 2; Jade Gatson 0 0-2 0. TOTALS: 7 5-9 20

BRANDYWINE 52

Carlie Newman 5 3-4 14; Morgan Antus 2 0-0 5; Mackenzie Shelton 1 0-0 3; Kelsey Prestly 4 1-2 9; Victoria Knight 0 0-0 0; Morgan Smallwood 2 1-4 5; Lauren Leonard 1 3-6 5; Madison Pellow 5 1-1 11; Saranda Lary 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 20 9-17 59

Cassopolis 3 5 12 20

Brandywine 18 33 47 52

3-point baskets: Cassopolis 1 (Transou), Brandywine 3 (Newman, Antus, Shelton). Total fouls: Cassopolis 15, Brandywine 10. Fouled out: None. Varsity records: Cassopolis 6-7, 3-5 Lakeland; Brandywine 13-1, 8-0 Lakeland