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CASSOPOLIS — The Niles Brandywine boys basketball team has had its share of struggles this season. 

Thanks to a stellar defensive performance, the Bobcats were able to flourish this time in Wednesday’s 57-45 Division 3 district semifinal win over White Pigeon at Ross-Beatty High School in Cassopolis. 

Brandywine (12-10) advances to face Bridgman (17-5) in Friday’s championship at 7 p.m.

Bridgman handed Cassopolis (13-10) a 61-56 loss in the other semifinal.

“We’ve had moments where we’ve looked good and other times where our youth has shown. Our kids played hard tonight. There were a couple times we had mental breakdowns, but I was pleased. I thought we did a nice job on the glass. White Pigeon has some good shooters and I felt we did a nice job of them most of the night,” said Niles Brandywine coach Nathan Knapp. 

Three players scored in double figures for Brandywine led by 5-foot-8 sophomore guard Elijah Burt with 21 points. Junior guard Nylen Goins added 20 and raised his career scoring total to 998. Ryder Richard, another junior, added 12 points for the Bobcats and J.J. Henry and Will Hubbard scored two apiece. 

Brandywine made 25 field goals, including six three pointers, and made the only free throw it attempted. 

Goins and Richard made two triples each. 

Brandywine held a slight edge on White Pigeon on the rebounding charts 33-27. 

Hubbard led the Bobcats with nine boards, while Burt and Richard pulled down six each. 

“We have lot of pieces on this team, but we just have to get them all to come together on night’s like these. Our kids still get in a hurry sometimes offensively. We just need to take our time. We’ve seen a lot of growth from earlier this season,” Knapp said. 

Senior Ty Strawser led White Pigeon with a game-high 24 points. All eight of Strawser’s baskets came on triples. Senior Jordan Pisco added nine points for the Chiefs (16-7), while classmate Mekhi Singleton added seven, Josh Davidson three and Chris Temple two. 

White Pigeon made 16 field-goal attempts, including nine triples, and 4-of-5 (80 percent) free-throw attempts.

With the game tied at 6-6 early in the opening stanza, Brandywine went on a 8-3 run to finish the period. The Bobcats got two consecutive baskets from Richard and Goins to close the quarter out and take a 14-9 advantage. 

Burt’s triple and a Goins’ mid-range jumper extended the Bobcats’ lead to double digits, 19-9. Back-to-back triples by Strawser pulled the Chiefs back within five, 22-17. But Henry drove inside for a bucket and Goins drained a triple moments later to put Brandywine on top 27-19 entering halftime. 

Brandywine built its lead to as many as 12 points in the third. Goins opened the second half with a triple and knocked down another shot inside moments later. Burt added a three pointer and also scored on a putback to put the Bobcats in front 37-25. Strawser drained another triple lessening the Chiefs’ deficit to nine, 37-28. But Burt drove inside for a pair then added a layup and free throw to put Brandywine up 42-30 entering the final stanza.

White Pigeon whittled the Brandywine lead to nine, 50-41 with 3:21 left in the fourth quarter on Strawser’s triple. But the Bobcats sealed the win with Goins’ bucket in the lane followed by Richard’s triple and a layup.

“Brandywine’s record isn’t indicative of how good they are. We knew coming in that they would play tremendous defense, put alot of ball pressure on us and trap us. They also play great help-side defense and they shot the ball very well,” said White Pigeon head coach Shawn Strawser. “We didn’t shoot the ball very well ourselves, but that’s a credit to their defense. They were successful in taking us out of what we like to do.”

In looking ahead to Friday’s final against Bridgman, a team the Bobcats beat 64-60 in overtime in early January, Knapp stated his ballclub must stop the Bees’ penetration.

“Mike Miller is a great coach. He always has his kids ready to play. They have some great shooters and are smart basketball players. It should be a great game. We have to stop their penetration and keep them off the glass because they are going to come in ready,” Knapp said.  

Bridgman 61, Cassopolis 56

A late come-back fell just short for a young Cassopolis ballclub. 

The Rangers found themselves trailing the Bees by 14, 54-39 with 4:50 left in the fourth quarter. 

Cassopolis managed to fight back and get back within five points, 56-51, on Ayden Gillam’s three pointer with less than a minute left. Teammates Trevon Peterson-Evans and Aarenn Buck-Hooper both made shots in the waning seconds, but Bridgman sealed up the win by making 5-of-6 free throws. 

Cassopolis went through a tough stretch near the end of the third and early in the fourth quarter where the Rangers couldn’t score. 

“Bridgman did a nice job during that span of holding the basketball. At one point we just couldn’t buy a basket. We’d either have a turnover or the ball would go in and out,” said Cassopolis head coach Charles Superczynski II. 

“I felt we took some pretty good shots all night. Sometimes they fall and other times they don’t. We did a nice job executing some things that I don’t think Bridgman expected. We went to a lot of man-to-man defense and just tried to be a big physical presence and chase their shooters off the three. I thought our kids were real active. We’re a bit undersized and they controlled the rebounding. I was pleased with how we responded the last four minutes of the game.”

Cassopolis, which returns all 14 players on its roster next season, jumped out to an early 16-11 lead. Charlie Pagel’s triple at the end of the period trimmed the Bees’ deficit to two, 16-14 entering the second quarter. 

The Ranger increased its lead to six points, 20-14 on a nice pair of back-door cuts for baskets from Lucas Williams and Peterson-Evans. 

Bridgman eventually evened the game up at 24-24 on Ethan Stine’s triple. But the Rangers answered with a bucket inside from Buck-Hooper and a Gillam triple to send the hosts into halftime with a 29-26 advantage. 

The contest was tied three times in the third quarter before Cassopolis took its final lead, 39-38, on Jaylen Pratt’s short jumper. The Bees capped off the period with a 6-0 run to grab a 44-39 lead entering the fourth.

Pratt finished with 19 points for Cassopolis. Gillam added 12, Peterson-Evans had 11 and Lucas Williams totaled 10 for the Rangers, who made 24 field goals, including six triples, and 2-of-5 free-throw attempts. 

Cassopolis’ coach is looking forward to having his whole squad returning next season. 

“We will have three seniors next year and still be fairly young with sophomores and juniors. This group learned how to play together. It took a while for us to get used to one another after losing a lot of seniors from last year,” said Cassopolis’ coach.

Bridgman was paced in scoring by Pagel with 25. Wade Haskins added 10 for the Bees, while Stine finished with nine and Teddy Ippel added eight. 

The Bees made 23 shots from the floor, including six three pointers, and made 9-of-12 free-throw tries. 

“Cassopolis’ quickness bothered us. I thought we played poorly the whole game from an offensive and defensive standpoint. We had some first-game jitters, but I thought we got rid of that by halftime and played a good second half,” said long-time Bridgman head coach Mike Miller.