Kalamazoo Gazette photo / Brandywine's Carlie Newman (right) tries to stop Delton-Kellogg's Andrea Polley from driving to the basket during Tuesday night's Class C Regional semifinal. The Bobcats defeated the host Panthers 52-34 to advance to its fourth consecutive regional final. Newman scored a game-high 29 points, which included seven 3-pointers.

DELTON — A strong second half defensive effort and the deadly outside shooting of senior Carlie Newman lifted visiting Brandywine to a 52-34 victory over Delton-Kellogg Tuesday night in the Class C Regional semifinal.

The No. 4-ranked Bobcats (23-1) outscored the Panthers (19-4) 30-13 in the second half to advance to their fourth consecutive regional final.
Brandywine will take on Mendon, a 45-27 winner against Hartford in the opening semifinal. The Bobcats and the Hornets played back in January with the Bobcats winning 46-33 road victory.

After playing two close quarters to open the game, the momentum swung dramatically in Brandywine’s favor in the final 16 minutes.
With a renewed effort on defense, the Bobcats were able to shut down the Panthers’ offense.

Brandywine outscored Delton-Kellogg 15-7 in the decisive third quarter and then finished off the Panthers by spreading the floor and working time off the clock on nearly every possession of the fourth quarter.

“That’s what we talked about at halftime,” Brandywine coach Josh Hood said about the defensive effort. “We weren’t particularly thrilled with all the mistakes on offense in the first half. But I told them at halftime it doesn’t matter offensively if you guys dig down. We did a really good job of finding where they were in foul trouble and attacking it, I thought, in the second half.”

Already down standout Adrianna Culbert, who injured her ankle during volleyball practice Sunday, the Panthers had Andrea Polley and Mallory Sewell get into foul trouble.

With three of their better offensive weapons unable to play all or part of the game, Delton-Kellogg struggled to score.

At the other end of the court, Newman was lighting up the Panthers’ defense. She tied her own school record with seven 3-pointers, including four in the first half. She finished with a game-high 29 points, of which 16 came in the second half.

“I think out foul trouble didn’t help,” Delton-Kellogg coach Mike Mohn said of Brandywine’s defensive intensity. “That’s a nice little group of kids they have other there. They play hard. They fly around like I like our kids to do. You get a little chink in the armor and the next thing you know you get a little goofy and a little silly and you start throwing the ball around. And then you are fighting up hill.

“My gosh, can 10 shoot or can 10 shoot? I’m going to call her Bernard King Jr. She can light it up,” he said.

The Bobcats never trailed at any quarter break.

Brandywine led 15-11 after one, but the lead was trimmed to 22-21 at halftime by the Panthers.

From there it was all Bobcats.

Besides Newman, Brandywine also got six pints from Madison Pellow and five points each from Rachael Ort and Brooke Smith.

Polley and Alea Hammond both had nine points for the Panthers.

Tip-off for Thursday night’s championship game is set for 7 p.m. The winner advances to Bangor for the quarterfinal contest Tuesday.

BRANDYWINE 52

Carlie Newman 10 2-4 29; Rachael Ort 0 5-6 5; Victoria Ebersol 0 0-0 0; Mackenzie Shelton 1 0-0 2; Tia Hullinger 0 2-2 2; Victoria Knight 0 1-2 1; Brooke Smith 1 3-4 5; Mikayla Kemp 0 0-0 0; Madison Pellow 3 0-3 6; Hannah Horst 0 0-0 0; Miranda Smallmon 1 0-0 2; Samantha Bell. TOTALS: 16 13-21 52

DELTON-KELLOGG 34

Sarah Redon 1 0-0 2; Cassandra Coplin 1 0-0 2; Andrea Polley 4 1-2 9; Kristin Mohn 2 0-2 4; Alea Hammond 4 0-0 9; Brooke Martin 1 0-0 2; Sarah Cleven 0 0-0 0; Christy Gonzalez 0 0-0 0; Mallory Sewell 1 2-4 4. TOTALS: 15 3-8 34

Brandywine 15 22 37 52

Delton-Kellogg 11 21 28 34

3-point baskets: Brandywine 7 (Newman 7), Delton-Kellogg 1 (Hammond). Total fouls (fouled out): Brandywine 10 (none), Delton-Kellogg 19 (Pelley). Varsity records: Brandywine 23-1, Delton-Kellogg 19-4