What a great facility for a great game. Brooke has some of the best facilities around, whether it’s the new middle school, the swimming facilities, or the awesome gym where we witnessed a great game of basketball on a Saturday night, Brooke likes to show off their school when they can and for good reason. They hosted 3 events there yesterday alone.
It was great to see the Bruins bring out their youth cheerleaders to begin the night to cheer on their Brooke Bruins, that was worth the admission in itself, but we were even treated to a good basketball game between the visiting Bellaire Big Reds and the Brooke Bruins.
Whether on a make or miss the Bellaire Big Reds turned up the pressure on defense. They picked up the Bruins full court on every defensive opportunity. Brooke was able to break this pressure early and get some easy buckets on the back end of the defense.
Coach Battista wasn’t concerned about the Bruins breaking the pressure early. He continued to encourage the team to play hard and fast.
Brooke came out defensively in a 2-3 zone to contain Bellaire’s dribble penetration. Bellaire tried to shoot the Bruins out of the zone and were successful in hitting 3 3’s in the first quarter.
Battista used the motion offense and told his team to penetrate the zone to get inside looks, which began to work. The Big Reds used this to gain a 21-15 1st quarter lead.
Brooke switched up defenses in the 2nd quarter and tried some man to man, to contain Bellaire’s 3-point shots. Bellaire continued their full court pressure on all makes and misses. Brooke again was able to get some layups behind the defense to stay in the game.
The Big Reds were able to extend their lead by a point at the half, going up 37-30 at the break.
Leyton Toepfer came ready to play in the 2nd half hitting 3 pointers to keep the Bruins in the game.
Bellaire stuck with the pressure and started to get some forced and unforced turnovers from the Bruins to get some easy baskets on the offensive end. Some nifty passing on the offensive end from Ray Ray Pettigrew and his brother Mac Mac Pettigrew led to some easy layups for the road team during the 3rd as well.
Down 58-42 going into the final stanza, Brooke switched to some pressure on the defensive side of the ball, which led to some turnovers and unforced errors from the Big Reds. Brooke was able to close the gap in the 4th and got within single digits, but just couldn’t keep the Big Reds from getting to the basket late for some layups and easy 2’s.
Brooke was forced to foul at the end to extend the game, but Bellaire was able to hit some free throws and close out the game with a 74-65 win over the Bruins.
Mayson Sochor led the way for the Big Reds with 24, being very consistent scoring at least 4 points in each quarter.
Along with his strong defensive effort Mac Mac Pettigrew was next for the Big Reds with 17.
Two more double digit scorers for Bellaire in Jacob Dowling having 12 including hitting 2 3’s in the first to get the Big Reds out to an early lead.
The final double-digit scorer for the Big Reds was Ray Ray Pettigrew with 10 and some great assists on offense.
Brooke’s scoring came from Leyton Toepher with 16 including 3 3’s, also shooting the long ball and hitting 3 of them for the Bruins was Charlie Fuscardo to help him reach 11 for the game.
Blake Short’s 11 and Nate Kimball’s 10 round out the Bruins double digit scorers.
Photo credit given to Nikena Croce. @nikenacroce_photography on Instagram for your photography needs.
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