Young Brandywine team learning to play harder
Published 2:20 pm Friday, December 10, 2021
Leader photo/SCOTT NOVAK
Leader photo/SCOTT NOVAK
Leader photo/SCOTT NOVAK
Leader photo/SCOTT NOVAK
Leader photo/SCOTT NOVAK
Leader photo/SCOTT NOVAK
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NILES — Veteran Brandywine Coach Josh Hood admitted that he is going to have to learn to be more patient with his young girls basketball team.
One thing Hood will not be patient with is his team playing what he called “lazy basketball”. He felt that his team did not play with energy and effort in its previous game, but that was not a problem Thursday night as the Bobcats played with intensity in their 48-19 win over visiting River Valley.
Brandywine went cold from the field in the second half, but still took its coach’s words to heart and played with energy and effort, especially at the defensive end.
“We kind of lost a little bit,” Hood said about the Bobcats’ second-half shooting woes. “That first half, if we could bottle that energy, we could be really good. We have been disappointed, even though the wins have been double digits, we didn’t play as hard as we are capable of.”
The Bobcats spent time watching their first two games on film Wednesday.
“We watched a lot of lazy mistakes,” Hood said. “We can correct not executing on offense. We can correct maybe halftime a wrong rotation. What we cannot do is coach energy. It was an eye-opener for the girls. We only spent 25 on the court yesterday. We spent more time on the film session.”
Hood said he is not good at coaching energy and effort.
“I am really bad at it,” he said. “Tuesday was partly my fault because I was negative and I was irritated because I saw laziness. I have got to be better with a young team of coaching them up when things aren’t going well. Tonight, the focus was being positive and playing for your teammates. We work so hard throughout the year to play these 20 games. Now, we finally have a game where everybody got after it as a team, and everybody was excited on the bench, and excited for their teammates. I am really proud of the effort.”
Brandywine (3-0) pitched a shutout in the opening quarter as it outscored the Mustangs 19-0 in their non-divisional BCS Athletic Conference contest. The Bobcats led 32-7 at halftime.
Brandywine managed just 16 points in the second half, but played strong defensively to keep River Valley, which entered the game 2-0, from making a comeback.
The defensive effort was not lost on Hood.
“The style that we play, even though we did not press much, but even in the half-court we got better,” he said. “We played hard. We made things challenging. Our system is to always try to dictate on offense and defense, and to play fast. We got some easy baskets in transitions. In the half-court in the second half, we made them play out of their comfort zone.”
Ellie Knapp led the Bobcats for the third consecutive game in scoring as she finished with 14 points. Halley Scott added six points, with Adelyn Drotoz finishing with five points.
Macey Springer led the Mustangs with five points.
Brandywine is back on the court Saturday as it travels across the border to play South Bend Career Academy.
