GERMANTOWN — Trailing by nine at the half at the unfriendly confines of Valley View’s gym, things looked bleak for the Brookville Blue Devils Tuesday night.
However, executing the halftime adjustments employed by the Brookville coaching staff, the Blue Devils rallied by outscoring the Spartans 21-9 in the third frame and parlayed that period into a 58-53 victory.
Brookville improved to 7-4 overall and 3-3 in the SWBL Buckeye Division. The Spartans dropped to 4-6 overall and 3-3 in the SWBL.
The biggest adjustment was on defense as Brookville switched from a box and one defense on Brody Denny, the league’s top scorer, to a full court man-to-man pressing defense.
Brookville used several different defenders on Denny. However, Cole Crabtree and Dom King did most of the defensive work on the Spartans top scorer. Denny was held to six points in the game.
Jace Wood started the third quarter with a basket and a trifecta to cut the deficit to four points. Following a Spartan charity shot Keegan Mehr grabbed a rebound and scored.
Moments later Dom King made a layup on a fast break. Mehr then scored inside to give Brookville the lead at 34-33 with 5:05 left in the third frame. King then made a free throw for Brookville.
Trailing by two, the Spartans scored six straight to lead 39-35 with just over 3 ½ minutes left in the stanza. Brookville would finish the quarter on a run of 9-2 to lead 44-41.
During the run Cole Crabtree, Jace Wood, Brendan Fisher, and Colton Lawson all made layups. Fisher turned his into a three-point play the old fashioned was as he was fouled and drained the free throw.
Wood grabbed a missed basket and scored to start the final quarter. Brookville slowly pulled away as Wood, Fisher, and Crabtree made baskets to give the Devils a 54-46 lead.
Brookville played very smart basketball the final few minutes keeping the ball away and only shooting lay-ups as Valley View was unable to force bad shots by the Blue Devils.
The leading scorers for Valley View were Anthony Valenti with 15; Ty Fritz with 13, and Micah Valenti with 10 points. The Spartans committed 12 turnovers and shot 20-53 on the night for 38 percent. That includes seven of twenty from behind the arc with six of the made long distance shots coming in the first half.
Brookville stats show 24-57 shooting for 42 percent including 4-16 from behind the arc. Brookville was six for nine from the charity stripe. The Devils snagged 33 rebounds, had 15 assists, 10 steals and 12 turnovers.
Individual stats show Jace Wood with 23 points, six rebounds and three assists. Brendan Fisher scored nine points, snagged seven rebounds and had five steals. Braedan Smart had nine markers, four rebounds, three assists, and two steals.
Dom King scored six points and had seven rebounds and five assists. Coltin Lawson scored five points and snagged three boards. Keegan Mehr had four points and three assists. Cole Crabtree had four points.
