Bobcats tune up for tourney
Published 9:17 am Thursday, February 28, 2019
BERRIEN SPRINGS — The Brandywine girls basketball team wrapped up its regular season Tuesday night against BCS Conference foe Berrien Springs with a uncontested 65-22 victory.
This was the Bobcats 10th victory of the year in which they forced a running clock.
“It wasn’t much about the opponent tonight as it was for us to get the little things down pat before districts,” said Bobcats coach Josh Hood. “We wanted to improve on our penetration and sliding to the ball. We’ve worked on that the last couple of days at practice, and I thought we executed that pretty well tonight. It was a good team win.”
Brandywine’s Zakiyyah Abdullah came into the game with 999 career points and made her first bucket on a pick and rule halfway through the first quarter. An official’s timeout was taken and her accomplishment of 1,000 career points was recognized by the teams and fans.
“She is a phenomenal kid and a phenomenal basketball player,” Hood said. “She will be the first to tell you her teammates are who gives her these good looks so she gets those opportunities to score. If you think about how long Brandywine has been in existence since the early 60s, and for her to be the third girls basketball player ever to achieve this, is pretty impressive, especially as a junior.”
Abdullah finished with a game-high 18 points while Nicole Sachman added 12 points. Both Kennedy Byrd and Alexis Rhodes added 11 points for Brandywine.
The Bobcats open up Division 3 district action Monday night against Eau Claire at Bridgman. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.
Niles basketball
The Niles girls basketball team seems to be getting back on the right track.
The Vikings won their second straight contest as they routed SMAC West Division foe Mattawan 71-37 Tuesday night.
The win improved Niles’ record to 10-8 overall and 6-4 in the SMAC West.
After a close first half, which finished with the Vikings leading 28-23 at the intermission, Niles exploded for 27 third-quarter points to break the game wide open.
The Vikings led 55-35 heading into the final quarter.
Alycia Patterson scored a game-high 26 points to lead Niles, which also got 16 points from Aynslee Myer and 10 points from Amara Palmer.
Patterson, who scored 16 of her points in the third quarter, also had five steals and a pair of assists.
Palmer led the team with 10 rebounds to go along with three assists.