Marion County at Brashear November 20, 2007

The Brashear Tigers kick off their varsity basketball season with a pair of wins over the Marion County Mustangs.

The Lady Tigers went into Tuesday's game without point guard Kimberly Elsea who scored 1000+ in her career at Brashear. Elsea was one of three players Brashear lost to graduation. Starting the season against a team that beat the Lady Tigers 3 times last year added even more tension to the night. Marion County came out pressing hard, but Brashear started to find some holes in the Lady Mustang defense and went up 12-4 by the end of the 1st quarter. The Lady Tigers put up another 12 points in the 2nd quarter to take a 24-10 lead into the locker room. Marion County made some adjustments after halftime and held Brashear to a single bucket in the 3rd quarter while closing the gap to 26-18. The Lady Tigers lost more ground in the 4th quarter as they were plagued by fouls that gave Marion County 11 of their 2nd half points. Midway through the 4th quarter, Marion County took a three point lead, but the Tigers regained and held the lead to pick up the win 37-31. Jessi Hill had 12 points for Brashear, 8 coming in the 4th quarter. Hailee Kelsey added 11, and Emily Ladwig and Christina Scudder had 7 points each. Ranay Sharpe led Marion County with 16 points, 10 of which came from the charity stripe. Kayla Bridgman had 5, and Morgan Spratt, Jordan Johnson, Kelsey Tuley, Jenny Mitchell, and Skylar Neisen had 2 points each.

In the boys' game, it was close throughout the 1st quarter with Brashear leading 12-10. Kale Watson had provided a good portion of Brashear's 1st quarter firepower with a pair of 3's along with a 2 and a free throw. Watson added another pair of 3's in the 2nd quarter as Brashear outscored the Mustangs 14-5 to take a 26-15 lead into halftime. Brashear came out in the 2nd half determined to put the game away and did so leading 41-23 after 3 quarters and getting the win 61-35. Brashear had 3 players in double figures, Kale Watson with 23, Trae Treasure with 12, and Jacob Shipman with 11. Matt Thomas had 6, and Justin Hazen, Kiley Watson, Ryan Ferdig, and Jacob Owen each scored 2 points. For Marion County, Justin Tobias had 12, Dakota Bainter had 10, Ben Hirner and Josh Hirner had 5 each, Austin Redd had 2, and Justin Taylor scored 1 point.

Brashear will play in the Novinger Tournament next week where the Lady Tigers will play Bevier Tuesday at 7:10 and the Tigers will face Grundy County Tuesday at 8:30.