by AKRON, Ohio– A third quarter where Toledo Whitmer outscored Brunswick 24-13 seemed to be the second half spark the Panthers needed. They used that to propel scoring runs that were too much for Brunswick to come back from down the stretch, securing a district championship behind a 64-62 win.
“I think our guys never panicked, they just stayed the course,” Whitmer coach Anthony Stacey said. “In the third quarter we made a good run and cut off some of the threes.”
Nothing seemed to faze or disrupt the shooting from Trey Drexler throughout the first half. He helped lead Brunswick out to a 7-0 lead in the first three minutes of the game. The Blue Devil defense did a sound job limiting Purdue commit Antione West from making an impact in the first half.
As a team, they held Whitmer to 12 points in the first quarter, with the Blue Devils having a nine-point lead after Drexler buried one of three 3-pointers with time expiring. From there, Sean Barnett made his defensive presence known.
As a team, the Blue Devils fed of its tough on-ball pressure with West not scoring a single point throughout the first half. They pushed their lead as high as 14 points in the second quarter and even took a 36-25 lead heading into halftime.
Drexler scored 19 first-half points as a slew of defensive looks wasn’t enough to stop the three-point shots from falling from players like Drexler and Barnett.
“I just thought (Antione) was too passive in the first half,” Stacey explained heading going into halftime. “I thought he came out aggressive and him and Makhi really set the tone in the second half, we’re at our best when those two are attacking like crazy.”
The Panthers came out of the halftime break with some aggressiveness, particularly from West, Charles Johnson, Jay Hooker and Makhi Leach. Hooker battled foul trouble throughout the first half, picking up three early ones. His impact on the defensive side of the ball throughout the third quarter led to the Panthers constantly getting fast-break opportunities.
In fact, they took their first lead of the game with two minutes left in the third quarter after Leach connected on a bucket near the rim. A Drexler 3-pointer to close out the third quarter scoring tied the game at 49 heading into the fourth quarter.
Davis’s biggest shot of the night was a 3-pointer with 3:30 left in the fourth quarter, putting the Panthers ahead 58-55 at the time. That lead gave his team cushion down the stretch as they held a two-possession lead for majority of the final minute of the game.
Brunswick had a chance to tie the game at the free throw line with 1 second left, but Barnett missed both and that secured the win for the Panthers.
“The travel is obviously not great for us but at the end of the day when we get here nobody cares how far we came…I’m so proud of our guys.” Stacey said with a smile on his face.
For Whitmer, Leach finished with a team-high 19 points. West finished with 13 second-half points along with 12 points from Charles Johnson.
For the Blue Devils, Drexler paced the team with a game-high 25 points during the loss. Barnett had 21 and Shaker finished with six points.
