Brookville earned the right to play again by taking care of Shawnee 64-37 in a Division IV district second round game on Thursday night at Xenia High School.
“You got to win the first one and that’s the name of the tournament to win and advance,” Hughes said. “It’s one thing watching on film, and then it’s completely different being in the gym watching the speed that they play at. You can see it’s so much more in person. ... We’re looking forward to Tuesday and the opportunity.”
Brookville is seeking its third straight trip to a district final game. The Blue Devils got that far in 2024 before losing to Cincinnati Madeira. The team upset Valley View and Urbana last season before falling to eventual regional champion Cincinnati Wyoming.
Hughes said he hopes the school’s girls team wins its district final game on Saturday with the chance for an Alter vs. Brookville matchup to occur Tuesday in both the boys and girls tournaments on the same day.
The postgame pump-up locker room speech which privately was given to Brookville players after Thursday’s win will keep them excited if it happens.
“They’re a heck of a team and they’re a storied program with a lot of success forever,” Hughes said of Alter. “They got guys that can absolutely score and they get out and play fast and that’s kind of the same style of basketball we like to play.
“We’re still gonna have to do a really good job about getting back in transition and limiting their opportunities and making sure they’re playing in the half court as much as we can.”
Using the game plan from Thursday’s win would certainly help their chances.
No. 8 Brookville (16-7) crammed the area inside the arc to frustrate Shawnee most of the night with its defensive play. The Braves went more than 12 minutes during the middle part of the game without scoring as Brookville overcame a slow start to build a comfortable lead.
Shawnee grabbed an early lead thanks to four threes in the first quarter, two by sophomore Justin Boehmer and one from seniors Julian Dixon and Adrian Jones Jr, respectively.
The Braves still led 16-13 near the midway point of the second quarter and held out as long as possible before Brookville found a spark. The Blue Devils produced a 12-0 in the final 1:37 of the first half thanks to multiple steals and transition baskets. Senior Branson King drained a three from the top of the arc as the buzzer sounded to cap the half.
Credit: Steven Wright
Credit: Steven Wright
“I think the one thing that really sparked us is as soon as we went to that 1-2-2 and half court trap, they really struggled to move the basketball and get good positions to score,” Hughes said. “We were able to create turnovers and get some steals for some transition points to get us going.”
The drought continued for Shawnee (10-13) well into the third quarter as Brookville scored the first 14 points of the second half to pull away.
Brookville’s ability to pull down offensive rebounds and extend possessions was evident as the game progressed as Shawnee appeared frustrated by the prolonged possessions it had to play on defense.
“We were so concerned just making sure that we were getting back on defense in transition,” Shawnee head coach Ty English said. “We just didn’t execute like we wanted to tonight for sure.”
English said he felt his team settled for too many jump shots against the Brookville zone and halftime adjustments didn’t work out as planned.
Brookville was led by 16 points by senior Ben Bost and got another 11 by senior Braedan Smart.
Shawnee got 10 points from junior Weedny St. Phard, all of which came in the second half.
Credit: Steven Wright
Credit: Steven Wright
Alter cruises past Thurgood Marshall
The second-seeded Knights scored the first 13 points of Thursday’s first game and cruised to a 74-40 win.
“We want to play hard and we don’t want to create bad habits,” Alter head coach Eric Coulter said assessing his team’s night. “We did tend to gamble way too much on defense and go for way too many steals and you just can’t do that.”
It didn’t matter much for Alter toward the final result. The Knights led by 25 at halftime and put the game into a running clock situation with just under four minutes remaining in the third quarter. Alter didn’t score in the fourth quarter.
Freshman William Peagler, Jr. scored 17 of game-high 19 points in the first half. A trio of juniors were next up for Alter as Thomas Nicholas had 15, Drew Cripps scored 13 and Peyton Bakos added 11.
Alter (16-6) advances to face Brookville at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday at Xenia.
No. 12 seed Thurgood Marshall finished its season 7-17. Senior Jamarion Nelson scored 14 points and sophomore Jayson Wilson-Martin had 10.
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