Niles’ Logan Harpenau (left) looks for room to pass the ball against Brandywine’s Courtlan Gordon Tuesday night. The Vikings defeated their cross-town rivals Brandywine 82-37. Niles is now 5-0 on the year, while the Bobcats drop to 2-3. (Daily Star Photo/SCOTT NOVAK)

They scored inside. They scored outside. There wasn’t much Niles couldn’t do Tuesday night in defeating cross-town rival Brandywine 82-37 in a non-conference boys’ basketball game.

The Vikings placed five players in double figures, shot the ball extremely well and connected on 12 3-pointers as they improved to 5-0 on the season.

Niles had shot the ball well in all but one of their first five games this year.

Despite the lopsided score and the easy of the victory, Vikings’ coach Todd Pawielski was not all that pleased with his team’s effort.

“I thought we were way too handsy defensively,” he said. “One of the things we talked about before the game was not reaching and just doing your job on defense. I thought we got away from that a little bit, but I certainly can’t fault our effort. We played hard tonight.”

One would figure that a game that feature a running clock from the final three and a half minutes on, there wouldn’t be many bright spots for the losing team.

That was not the case for the Bobcats (2-3) at all.

At times, Brandywine showed signs of its improvement from a season ago. But the Bobcats could not match Niles’ intensity and athleticism for the entire 32 minutes.

“Niles is a good team,” Brandywine coach Nathan Knapp said. “They are so quick and athletic we had a hard time guarding them one on one, so we our 2-3 zone to try and take the perimeter away. We gave then a lot of wide-open looks to get them going.

“We had stretches where we played well. That’s what we talked to the kids about. They were frustrated. When the score gets like that it’s tough to keep focused. Like I told them at halftime, you have to keep focused and you have to keep working to get better. You aren’t going to see too many teams like that in our league.”

The Vikings scored more than 20 points in each of the first three quarters.

Brandywine’s Austin Searles goes high for a rebound against Niles Tuesday night. (Daily Star Photo/SCOTT NOVAK)

Niles opened a 26-14 advantage after the first quarter and 49-21 at halftime.

The Vikings Myles Busby, Matthew McLaughlin, Austin Parks and Logan Harpenau off the bench did much of the damage in the first two quarters.

That quartet combined for 37 of Niles’ 49 first half points.

In the second half, starter Taylor Campbell got it going and scored seven points in the final 16 minutes, while Parks added 10 and McLaughlin eight.

Twenty-four third quarter points, including two by Austin Parks with 3:32 to play in the period started the running clock.

The Vikings finished the night hitting half of its 3-pointers (12-of-24) and was 18-of-31 from 2-point range (55 percent). Niles did not shoot the ball well from the free throw line as it went 12-of-28.

McLaughlin led the way with 19 points. Parks finished with 17 and Campbell 14. Busby and Harpenau each had 12 points. Busy also had seven rebounds and four steals, while Harpenau had seven rebounds as well. McLaughlin and Parks combined for 11 assists and six steals.

Mykal Toxopeus and Evan Hartman both finished with nine points for the Bobcats, who also got five points from both Michael Shelton and Brad Millen.

NILES 82

Myles Busby 4 3-7 12; Matthew McLaughlin 6 2-2 19; Austin Parks 7 1-2 17; Logan Harpenau 4 1-2 12; Alec Brown 1 0-0 2; Anthony Bice 1 0-2 3; Taylor Campbell 5 4-8 14; Quintin Irby 1 1-5 3. TOTALS: 29 12-28 82

BRANDYWINE 37

Austin Searles 1 1-2 4; Austin Bertschy 0 0-0 0; Michael Schoenleber 0 0-0 0; Alex Ulrickson 0 1-2 1; Brian Kling 0 0-2 0; Mykal Toxopeus 4 0-2 9; Michael Shelton 1 3-4 5; Courtlan Gordon 0 1-2 1; Alex Erwin 0 1-2 1; Alex Brooks 1 0-0 2; Evan Hartman 2 5-6 9; Brad Millin 1 3-4 5. TOTALS: 10 15-26 37

Niles 26 49 73 82

Brandywine 14 21 24 37

3-point baskets: Niles 12 (Busby, Parks 2, McLaughlin 5, Harpenau 3, Bice), Brandywine 2 (Toxopeus, Searles). Total fouls (fouled out): Niles 20 (none), Brandywine 19 (none). Varsity records: Niles 5-0, Brandywine 2-3