By TOM NYHUIS
Niles Daily Star

EDWARDSBURG – Edwardsburg reeled off their sixth straight win Friday night taking a 58-55 Lakeland Conference win over visiting Buchanan winning the game from the free throw line. The Eddies hit 12-of-13 from the stripe.

The Eddies improve to 7-2 and 3-2 in league play held a one point lead, 15-14, after eight minutes of play and in the second stanza opened up a 14 point advantage with a 20-7 second quarter of play.  Richie Reed’s 3-point basket with just under three minutes to paly proved to be the Bucks final points of the first half which left Buchanan trailing 23-21. The Eddies finished out the half with a 12-0 run to take a commanding lead over the Bucks.

Buchanan who falls to 6-4 and 3-2 in the conference had 13 first half turnovers compared to the Eddies seven.

In the third the Bucks open the quarter with a 12-2 run to cut the lead to four, 37-33 with 4:21 to play in the quarter. After the Eddies called a time out Edwardsburg finish the final four minutes outscoring Buchanan 6-1 and head into the final quarter with a 43-36 lead.
In the fourth it looked like the Eddies had the win in the bag leading 50-38 with just 4:39 to play after a pair of free throw tosses by Kyle Dale.

Buchanan’s offense got back on track and closed the gap 50-47 with 2:52 to play on Richie Reed’s third 3-point bucket of the night. For the Bucks leading scorer in the game that would be his last points of the night after an ankle injury sent him to the bench finishing the night with nine points. Bryan Kuntz and Jalen Brown each added eight. “In the second half our defensive set was better,” Buchanan coach Reid McBeth said of his teams performance. “In that first half it was a complete loss of composer by several players even our seniors. We were running stuff I have never seen before. You can blame it on coaching you can blame it on defense from Edwardsburg but obviously I didn’t have our guys ready to play. We came out and played hard in the second half but we obviously were not ready for what we saw tonight.”

Buchanan finished with 19 turnover for the night and the Eddies had 21 miscues.

A Ryan Catalano basket and a 3-point basket by Daniel Blackwell tied the game at 52 but it was the free throw shooting by the Eddies that sealed the win as Zak Eggleston broke the tie hitting two charity tosses with 40 seconds to play. A Savon Brown jumper to knot the game at 54 with :15 to play hit the front of the rim and freshman Josh Kozinski who lead his team with 16 gave his team a four point cushion sinking two from the stripe. “The best thing I can say about Josh is he comes from a great gene pool,” Eddie coach Dan Gunn said of his freshman standout. “The whole Kozinski family are basketball fanatics and Josh has been well endowed with all that knowledge and he has great composure for a young man.”

Jalen Brown pulled the Bucks to with in one 56-55 with 5.9 seconds to play after a bucket and a one from the free throw line.

On the inbound pass the Eddies got the ball to an open Kozinski who was quickly fouled and he sealed the victory knocking down his two free throw attempts.

“In the second half we played not to loose and we got ourselves into a couple of spots that were just kind of crazy and turned the ball over, reverted a little bit to some of the things we have done in the past but we with stood all of that and won the game and that is the important thing,” Gunn said.

BUCHANAN 55
Spencer Anglero 0 0-0 0, Dylan Arnold 1 0-0 2, Savon Brown 3 0-0 6, Richie Reed 3 0-0 9, Bryan Kuntz 4 0-0 8, Andrew Hearington 1 0-0 2, Daniel Blackwell 2 1-2 6, Ryan Catalano 3 0-0 6, Jalen Brown 3 2-3 6, Brandon Jackson 1 0-0 2, Marquis Tyler 3 0-0 6 Totals 24 3-5 55.
EDWARDSBURG 58
Jake Harroff 4 0-1 8, Ethan Zimmerman 1 2-2 4, Dustin Moore 1 0-0 3, Josh Kozinski 4 6-6 16, Zak Eggleston 1 2-2 4, Ron Preston 1 0-0 2, Nick Muir 3 0-0 7, Marcus Albrecht 2 0-0 4, Kyle Dale 4 2-2 10 Totals 21 12-13 58.

Buchanan 14 21 36 55
Edwardsburg 15 35 43 58
3-point baskets: Buchanan 4 (Reed 3, Blackwell 1) Edwardsburg 4 (Kozinski 2, Moore 1, Muir 1) Team fouls (fouled out) Buchanan 15 (none) Edwardsburg 11 (none). Records: Buchanan 6-4, 3-2 (LAC) Edwardsburg 7-2, 3-2 (LAC)