Bobcats pull away from Portagers

by Dylan Savela, Manistee News Advocate

BRETHREN — For just the second time this season, Brethren headed into halftime without a deficit.

And then the Bobcats outscored the opposition in the third quarter — again, just the second time the team’s done so this year.

The formula proved fruitful for Brethren as it notched a 56-48 West Michigan D League win against Onekama on Wednesday to sweep the season series with the cross-county foe.

“I thought we played well all night long,” said Bobcats coach Travis Walker, citing that strong performances by his two seniors also paid dividends. “John (Cullar) and Dylan (Richardson) were huge tonight. That was the first game this year, I thought, where both of them played a very solid game at the same time. It’s something we need.”

Cullar led all scorers with 17 points and a game-high nine rebounds while Richardson had 15 points and seven boards. Gary Lodin added 10 points for the Bobcats.

Onekama (1-9, 1-8 WMD) seemed to be the aggressors in the first quarter, leading 18-13 after one, but Brethren (4-8, 4-5 WMD) began to clamp down defensively while knocking down its open looks.

“Our shots just weren’t falling early on,” Walker said. “We were still getting the same shots all night long, I thought, they just stated dropping for us later.

“I thought our defense was not quite what it needed to be in the first half,” he added. “Onekama did a great job moving the ball and finding the open guy, and then we just weren’t rotating fast enough — especially in the first quarter. We started to play better defensively in the second to mount a little comeback, and then it was really nice to, for only the second time this year, go into halftime not trailing.”

The Bobcats closed the first half on a 9-2 run, which forced a tie at 26 by the break.

Neither team dominated the third quarter offensively, but Brethren generated most of its points through pressure defense and offensive boards. The Bobcats outscored the Portagers 11-6 in the frame to take a 37-32 edge into the fourth.

“We thought the pressure might be getting to them a bit in the second quarter, so we wanted to keep it up and it gave us a cushion,” Walker said. “We weren’t committing enough defensively in the first half, but I think in the second half we just threw ourselves into that press and we were able to build that little lead.”

The Bobcats began to pull away in the fourth, leading by as many as 14 with 1:47 remaining, before Onekama’s Cody Graf scored his team’s last six points with two 3s in the final 30 seconds.

The Portagers were led by Kyle Acker’s 15 points while Graf finished with 11.

Onekama coach Jim Hunter cited defense and rebounding as keys in the loss. The Bobcats finished with a 34-26 edge on the boards, 15 of which came on the offensive end.

“Their pressure got to us,” he said. “We did a pretty good job the first half, but we got a little bit timid when the pressure came on.

“And they didn’t exactly rip apart from us,” he added. “It was a couple buckets here, and then we’d trade baskets, and they’d get a couple more.

“The biggest difference in that second half, though, was second shots. They killed us on the rebounds. They were just playing at a little bit different speed than we were.”

The Brethren junior varsity team edged the Portagers 45-44 in a thriller Wednesday night. The Bobcats’ Jeremiah Best sunk two free throws during a one-and-one opportunity with just a second remaining to capture the victory. Best scored a game-high 19 while Onekama’s Jon Eno scored a team-high 14.