BANGOR – Many will remember Brewer’s 53-44 Big East Conference boys basketball victory over John Bapst at the Bangor Auditorium on Tuesday night for Witches’ guard Andy Frost scoring his 1,000th career point.

But within the Brewer locker room the lasting memory may have more to do with the defensive job the Witches did after intermission.

Brewer held John Bapst without a field goal for the first 10 minutes, 24 seconds of the second half, forcing seven turnovers and allowing only six shots during that span.

By the time the Crusaders’ Brandon Freeman made a lay-up with 5:46 left in the game, Brewer had extended its 27-22 halftime lead to a 48-28 cushion.

“Coach [Mark Reed] was sick of seeing us getting beat on back cuts, which we knew they were going to do,” said Frost of Brewer’s halftime team meeting. “It’s something we had been working on in practice preparing for them, but we weren’t executing. We did a better job in the second half.”

Frost finished with a game-high 16 points despite sitting out eight minutes of the first half after drawing his second foul.

The 6-foot senior guard reached 1,000 career points with 1:05 left in the third quarter after he tipped the ball away from John Bapst’s Alex Means and took a return pass for a layup.

“Actually I think I fouled him,” said Frost, who now has 1,006 points in a career that includes two years spent at Calais, where he scored his first 679 points. “He brought the ball across in front and I caught him across the wrist and sort of freed the ball up.”

Held to four points in the first half, Frost scored six on 3-of-3 shooting in the third quarter. Junior forward Isaac Bell (13 points) added a pair of 3-pointers in the period as Brewer outscored John Bapst 14-3 to gain a 41-25 lead.

Perhaps it was an uprising borne out of a sense of urgency as Brewer had been idle for a week since dropping its first two games of the season.

“I think we were ready to play because we lost our first two games and we wanted to get a win,” said Bell.

“They were more hungry than we were tonight,” added John Bapst coach Jason Mills, whose 1-2 Crusaders also were playing for the first time in a week. “They didn’t want to be 0-3, and we knew that coming in. I’d rather have played them with them being 1-1 or 2-0 as opposed to being 0-2, because they’re not an 0-2 team. Tonight it came down to them wanting it a little more than we did.”

Freeman scored 11 points and Means 10 to pace John Bapst, who were without senior center Dan Myerowitz, sidelined due to illness.

“Offense was tough to come by all night,” Mills said. “[Brewer] doesn’t have much size, but we weren’t able to generate any inside game, so we relied on the perimeter and the shots weren’t falling.”

WITCHES 53, CRUSADERS 44

Brewer (1-2) John Bapst (1-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Wilson 2 9 2 2 6 Leavitt 1 6 6

Davis 0 2 0 0 0 Snyder 1 1 2

Bell 5 9 0 2 13 To. Carey 0 0 0

Craig 0 0 0 0 0 Means 3 8 10

Rees 0 0 1 2 1 Ferrill 2 11 1 6

Davies 0 1 0 2 0 Tr. Carey 1 2

Frost 7 11 2 3 16 Roach 2 4 5

Miller 1 5 2 3 5 Keefe 0 1 0

Young 0 4 0 0 0 Yeo 0 1 2

Fitzgerald 0 1 0 0 0 Shaler 0 0 0

Macomber 0 0 0 0 0 Freeman 5 9 11

Babin 3 4 1 2 7

Francis 2 3 1 1 5

Totals 20 49 9 17 53 15 44 12 17 44

Brewer 9 27 14 53

John Bapst 8 22 25 44

3-pt. goals ? Brewer (4-13): Bell 3-4, Miller 1-4, Frost 0-1, Babin 0-1, Wilson 0-3; John Bapst (2-11): Ferrill 1-3, Freeman 1-4, Leavitt 0-1, Means 0-3

Attendance: 700 (est.)