Blue Saturday for Brookville.
J. C. Tilton
On Saturday Twin Valley South and Brookville faced off in a day long basketball showdown. There would be 2 girls and 3 boys basketball games. Starting with the tip off of the girls reserve basketball game at 1pm and then finishing with the boys varsity game that would finish at 8:15pm. It was all the basketball you could eat for local basketball fans. Or a serious case of bleacher butt for the most dedicated. The event was punctuated with the induction of Gus Ross and David Woodard into the Twin Valley South Athletic Hall of Fame at halftime of the Varsity boys game.
The girls were first up to bat, the Reserve team finished in the win column with a dramatic last second win. Freshman Jessica French won on a layup with 2 seconds left in the game to give the Panthers their first win of the day 34-33. Scoring for TVS: Spitler 6, French 12, McCollum 2, Melling 2, Deleranko 4, Ervin 6, Tilton 2. Scoring for Brookville: Hopkins 1, Shellabarger 11, O'Connor 2, Phillips 6, Deisher 6, Wolfe 3, Brisco 1.
Next up were the Varsity girls teams. TVS began the week with a crushing defeat by Tri Village, but rebounded with a victory over Bethel. Brookville entered the game with a winning record, but had been beaten decisively by Middletown Madison on Thursday. Both teams opened with man to man defenses although TVS slipped into a zone later in the game. Brookville was cold from the floor early in the first quarter. TVS had a 7-1 lead when Brookville took a time out. What ever Chuck Gross said must have had some effect as the Blue Devils took momentum and closed with TVS - ending the quarter in a 9-9 tie. However, Brookville post player Joy Maxell accumulated 2 fouls and had to ride the bench.
In the second quarter, TVS took advantage of the height advantage and worked the ball inside - Brittany Hayes and Katie McCoy combined for 15 points and Dany Lipps chipped in a basket, giving South the lead at halftime 24-16. In the first half Hayes was hurt, and played sporadically thru out the game. In the second half Brookville changed gears. They went into a shell offense where they placed 4 people around the perimeter and worked one post player in the paint in an effort to pull South's post players away from the basket. Joy Maxell was back in the game for Brookville and began to score. Brookville pressed a little but called it off after a few minutes. But now it was South's turn to experience cold shooting as they had difficulty finding the rim. Brookville took advantage, pulling ahead 31-30.
Brookville was doing a better job of defending the post, so it was now up to the TVS wings to step up. The lead was exchanged several times - Jennifer Bambeck's basket for the lead early in the quarter was answered by Brookville's Jaime Mitrisin. The lead was exchanged several times as the clock ticked down. Kali Duchemin scored a critical basket to put TVS back on top by one at the :57 second mark. This was followed by a Dany Lipps bucket to give South a 3 point lead. With :37 seconds left Kali Duchemin was fouled and sent to line. She cooly sunk 2 free throws to make it a 2 score lead for TVS. Brookville was unable to sink a basket in the final seconds and TVS would win their second game of the day 40-35.
Coach Robinson had praise to pass out after the game, “Dany Lipps did an awesome job on the offensive boards and defensively. Brittany Hayes did a great job in the first half - playing hurt and when she came back in defensively [in the second half], she did a great job. It was real balanced scoring. We got 12 and 11 from our big girls inside. When they were shut down some other kids stepped up. We worked super hard defensively. We've worked hard on that all year and the last few games we have put it together. In just a matter of 4 or 5 days I have a new ball club out there. They're playing like I knew they could”.
Scoring for TVS: Bambeck 2, Lipps 9, Brubaker 2, Duchemin 4, Hayes 11, McCoy 12. Brookville: Jaime Mitrisin 9, Jessi Mitrisin 12, Scheirer 2, Maxel 12.
Now it was time for the boys teams to step up to the plate. The TVS freshman came away with a narrow 28-26 victory and the boys reserve won handily 57-22. Now it was time for the Varsity boys to finish the day. TVS was smarting from a defeat at the hands of Franklin Monroe the night before. And Brookville had lost to Madison. Both teams were looking to get back in the win column. But TVS quickly overwhelmed Brookville. The TVS halftime lead was narrow 27-19, but TVS had a second half surge that Brookville could not answer. Sprinkling in a half court trap to keep Brookville off balance, TVS generated turnovers and kept the game at a fast pace where they piled up the points. When the dust had cleared, TVS had pulled away 61-35.
Coach Augsperger was disappointed with the loss to Franklin Monroe - “it was our worst defensive effort of the year. We were flat coming out. We had a good week of practice and I though our kids were really ready. But it was as if they decided to take Friday night off. It was bad. ”
When asked about the Brookville Coach Augsperger responded, “We've been struggling shooting the basketball. And we've not done a very good job of offensive rebounding. We tried to do something a little bit different on defense - try to mix things up. We've got play better than what we have been doing. But we took some steps tonight, we'll see”. The team did bounce back from the Franklin game by playing tough defense and hitting the boards. So TVS completed the Quintella going 5-0 for the day. Scoring for TVS: D. Bassler 12, C. Bassler 7, C. Bryant 3, Loxley 14, Dawson 3, Bassler W. 3, Nuse 6, Smith 13. Comments: email: Chris Tilton <mailto:email: Chris Tilton>
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