Broncos hold off Brewer Hampden’s Brown big on the boards

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HAMPDEN – From Hampden Academy head coach Russ Bartlett’s perspective, his boys basketball team followed its best quarter of action with its worst.

Fortunately for Bartlett and his Broncos, their best more than offset their worst, allowing Hampden to pick up its first win of the season – 50-37 over visiting Brewer on Friday night.

The 1-2 Broncos watched a 19-point lead with 51/2 minutes to play wither to eight with 21/2 left, but recovered enough to thwart Brewer’s rally by scoring eight of the game’s final 10 points.

“I think our lack of experience showed late when they made that run,” said Bartlett. “We wanted nothing but free throws and layups late in the game, but that’s not the way we were playing.”

The 1-1 Witches made their run not in the usual way with 3-pointers, but by attacking the paint. Brewer was successful not only in scoring inside, but also getting HA in foul trouble early in the fourth quarter.

The result was an 11-0 Brewer run, but it wouldn’t be enough to allow the Witches to climb totally out of the hole they dug themselves.

“We did a decent job of getting to the basket and working the foul situation to our favor, but I think too early in the game we started trying to get back into it too quickly, taking some bad shots,” said Brewer coach Mark Reed. “And from a defensive point of view, we didn’t do things well position-wise and that allowed their cutting to be as effective as it was.”

The Broncs made it look easy with their ball and player movement in the third when they scored the first eight points and the last nine of the period.

Forward Justin Brown ignited the Broncos by scoring three straight baskets to start the third en route to nine points and a game-high 15 rebounds.

“I came into the game telling myself I was going to make a big difference on the boards,” Brown said. “This was a big win for us. We really needed this to bounce back after that Bangor loss.”

If Brown ignited the Broncs, junior guard Brad Haase torched the Witches, scoring nine of his 12 total points and grabbing three of his six total rebounds in the third quarter after sitting out much of the first half with three fouls.

“After I got back in, it just started clicking. After I hit one shot, I started feeling good,” said Haase, who had all of his points in the last four minutes of the third quarter.

Senior forward Evan Farley chipped in with 10 points and six rebounds as his Broncos outrebounded 43-33 overall.

Hampden also outshot the Witches, 35 to 22 percent, but committed more turnovers with 16 to Brewer’s 13.

Senior forward Ryan Babin led Brewer with 16 points and seven boards. Junior forward Ben Valley had 14 points and 10 boards.

BRONCOS 50, WITCHES 37

Brewer (1-1) Hampden (1-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Libby 0 10 0 0 0 Stephens 1 2

Adams 1 2 1 2 3 Burke 0 1 0

Bissell 2 6 0 0 4 Turner 0 0 0

Meeker 0 5 0 0 0 Evans 1 2 2

Hutchins 0 5 0 0 0 Haase 4 11 12

Valley 4 8 6 10 14 Juco 3 6 7

Babin 5 18 4 4 16 Burditt 1 3 2

Belote 0 0 0 0 0 Farley 3 6 10

McCue 0 10 6 6

Brown 4 8 1 9

Totals 12 54 11 16 37 Totals 17 48 13 22 50

Brewer 2 11 16 37

Hampden 7 17 36 50

3-pt. goals – Brewer (2-14): Babin 2-5, Valley 0-1, Bissell 0-1, Adams 0-1, Libby 0-2, Meeker 0-2, Hutchins 0-2; Hampden (3-9): Farley 2-3, Haase 1-5, McCue 0-1

JV: Hampden 62-38

Attendance: 250 (est.)