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NILES — Two senior-laden and conference leading girls basketball programs squared off Tuesday in the Bobcat Den at Brandywine.

The Division 3 No. 1-ranked and unbeaten Lady Bobcats used a stingy defense, quickness and depth to hand Vicksburg its second consecutive loss with a big 45-28 non-conference win.

Vicksburg, now 13-2, was the only team to hand Brandywine, last year’s state runners-up, a loss during the regular season. The Bulldogs, who suffered its first defeat against Paw Paw on Friday, made it all the way to the Division 2 state quarterfinals last season.

Brandywine entered the contest averaging 58.3 points per game but head coach Josh Hood stated afterwards that scoring bunches of points isn’t a high priority.

“In my 16 years here at Brandywine it has never been about us trying to score 70, 80 or 90 points. The staple of our program is shell defense. If you can hold a team like Vicksburg that has five senior starters that are going to be college athletes to just 28 points, then you are playing great team defense,” Hood said. 

“I told our girls afterwards that its so important for us to be in these kinds of four or five point games and to have to face adversity. This wasn’t an easy game because Vicksburg is long and athletic in that great zone defense they play. You have to take advantage of chances when you have them. Tonight we were able to execute some sets and get some buckets at key moments. I’m so proud of the tenacity of our girls.”

Brandywine’s superior depth showed with eight different players contributing in the scoring column.

Adelyn Drotoz paced the Bobcats with 11 points, while Adeline Gill finished with eight, Karleigh Byrd seven, Lilly Gill six and Mackenna Price contributed five points. 

Brandywine finished 15-of-43 (35 percent) from the floor, including six triples, and 9-of-16 (56.2 percent) at the foul stripe.

“The nice thing about our team is we have a lot of good shooters. It’s hard for teams to focus on one person. Miley (Young) created a couple turnovers for us at the start tonight and everything is so calm when she’s in the game. Adeline (Gill) brings so much athleticism for us in the middle and Byrd and Drotoz, along with Ireland all hit big shots for us too,” Hood said. 

“Win or lose all these tough non-conference games that we play serve to get us ready for the tournament in March. We’re proud to come out on top, but we have lot of work to do yet to ourselves ready for March Madness.”

Vicksburg was paced in scoring by Makayla Allen with eight followed by Hannah DeVries’ seven points and Scarlett Hosner and Kendra Cooley added six apiece. 

The Bulldogs shot just 7-of-43 (16.3 percent) from the floor and 10-of-17 (59 percent) from the charity stripe. 

Vicksburg held two brief leads in the first quarter including a 7-4 lead after two free-throw tosses by the senior guard Allen. Byrd’s triple for Brandywine moments later evened it up at 7-7. Hosner’s charity tosses a few seconds after that gave the Bulldogs what would turn out to be its final lead of the night at 9-7. With time running out in the period though, Byrd dished the ball off to Ireland Prenkert who drained another triple to put Brandywine up 10-9. 

Brandywine increased its lead to four to start the second quarter before Vicksburg DeVries’ putback pulled the Bulldogs back within three, 14-11. But three pointers by Drotoz and sophomore Price along with two free throws from Young extended the home team’s lead to 22-11 with 2:05 left in the half.

Vicksburg was able to whittle its deficit to single digits before the break on a pair of DeVries steals and layups. Price hit a mid-range jumper that gave Brandywine a 24-15 cushion at intermission.

Byrd’s bucket inside with 4:31 left in the third stanza pushed Brandywine’s lead to double digits again at 26-16. Triples from Mann and Cooley pulled the Bulldogs back within six, 29-23. But two charity tosses from Adeline Gill put Brandywine on top 31-25 entering the fourth quarter.

Vicksburg crept back within five, 33-28 on Allen’s triple with 6:47 left in the game. Brandywine, however, went on to outscore its guests 14-3 in the period, including several easy layups down the stretch off steals.

Vicksburg outrebounded Brandywine 27-24. Adeline Gill grabbed six boards for the Bobcats, while Prenkert snagged four. 

Young also had four steals for Brandywine and four assists.

Brandywine’s pressure defense forced Vicksburg into 13 of its 23 turnovers in the first half. The Bobcats had just 10 turnovers.

“Brandywine is a good team and we knew that coming in. They are ranked No. 1 in Division 3 for a reason. We had a few too many turnovers in that first half, but I thought we really fought hard in the second half. This group of girls never quits. Both teams are experienced, but they did what they had to do to come out on top tonight,” said Vicksburg head coach Tim Kirby.

Brandywine returns to Lakeland Conference action at home Friday against Benton Harbor.