RICHMOND- In nearly every one of its losses this season, Bruton High’s boys basketball team was plagued by a slow start.
In Tuesday’s Group AA Division 3 state semifinal against Region III champion Spotswood, the Panthers got off to perhaps their strongest start of any game all season.
However, a shaky end to things proved costly as Bruton’s season ended dramatically with a 70-69 loss at VCU’s Siegel Center in Richmond.
The Panthers seized control right from the tip and jumped out to a 13-0 lead in the opening minutes. They took a seven-point lead into the final quarter of play, and despite shooting 14-15 from the free throw line in the period, managed only a single field goal during the final eight minutes of regulation.
It wasn’t necessarily a late collapse by Bruton – the Panthers simply just didn’t come up with the plays down the stretch that Spotswood did.
The Trailblazers, for instance, got a gutsy fourth-quarter effort from freshman Justin Kier, who scored all seven of his points during the final period including the eventual game-winning layup with 17 seconds left. Equally as clutch was the performance junior point guard Tucker McCoy, who shook off a 1-10 shooting slump from long range entering the fourth quarter to hit 2-3 from distance during the final eight minutes.
“Big-time respect and props to Bruton,” Spotswood coach Chad Ewards said after the game. “They deserve a lot of credit. But I was extremely proud of our composure. I thought there were a few chances there where we could have lost our cool and doubted the outcome of the game, but the motto of our program is “together,” and I think we embodied that today by the way we kept fighting.
“Every player that played a second [of the game] gave us great contributions.”
Dillard said he was pleased with his team’s execution all game. All five of the Panthers starters scored in double figures – led by Kapri Doucet’s 16 points and Lonnie Swinton’s 14 – and credited Spotswood with finding its stride after a sloppy first quarter.
“They got in sync,” said Dillard when asked the difference in the first quarter, when his Panthers forced the Trailblazers into 10 of their 17 total turnovers, compared to the rest of the game. “We came out and had a good start to things and then got a little stagnant in the second quarter, but I still felt confident in my team down the stretch.
“It was an emotional game decided by one point. A couple things go our way or another and we could be talking about something different. It’s tough to swallow.”
Bruton was clicking on all cylinders to start the game, but especially defensively. Spotswood had trouble solving Bruton’s notorious zone press and turned the ball over 10 times in the opening period alone without scoring its first bucket until 3:25 was left on the first quarter clock.
By that time, Doucet and Swinton, who scored nine of the Panthers’ 11 points to open the game, had sparked Bruton to an early 13-0 lead.
Chad Simmons’ and-one finish inside followed by a steal and layup from Swinton stretched Bruton’s lead to 18-4 before Spotswood’s Hyrum Weiler, (16 points) buried a corner 3 at the buzzer to make it 18-7 after one.
Behind Weiler, Spotswood found its stride in the second quarter, but the Panthers continued to move the ball efficiently on offense and, behind Carter’s six second points in the period, took a 34-27 lead into halftime.
Both teams opened the second half on fire, combining for 18 points in the first two-and-a-half minutes of the third quarter. The back-and-forth scoring would continue the rest of the period as the two sides each finished with 19 points in the quarter.
Bruton’s seven-point halftime lead was still intact (53-46) heading into the final eight minutes, which is when things got interesting.
Bruton pushed its lead to double-digits (59-48) early in the fourth on back-to-back buckets inside from Wallace and Mike Sangalang, but McCoy, who scored nine of his game-high 22 points in the final period, answered right back with a 3-pointer from the wing that sparked a 9-2 run for the Trailblazers to trim the Panthers lead to four, 61-57.
After Ethan Rice knocked down 2-2 from the line for Bruton – a common trend in the fourth quarter for Bruton – McCoy led another Trailblazers run with a pull-up jumper from deep. McCoy would then hit one of two free throws before Kier scored his points of the game with a strong inside bucket to bring to tie the game 63-all with a little over a minute-and-a-half left in regulation.
Carter and Khalil Davis would exchange 2-2 trips to the line as the score remained tied 65-65 when, following a costly Bruton turnover, Kier knocked down 1-2 free throws to give the Trailblazers their first lead of the game with 1:27 left on the clock.
Bruton would regain a one-point lead (67-66) on the ensuing possession after Swinton was fouled from 3-point range and sank 2-3 from the line.
Austin Nicely put Spotswood back up by one – marking the fourth lead change in under two minutes – with a nice turnaround jump shot in the lane, but that lead would hold for all of 14 seconds before Simmons calmly sank 2-2 from the line on Bruton’s next trip down the floor to put the Panthers op top 69-68 with 36 seconds to play.
After Kier’s go-ahead layup with 17 seconds left on the clock, Bruton advanced the ball and called a timeout with eight seconds remaining and drew up a play for its leading scorer Carter.
Out of the timeout, Carter received the inbounds pass and drove down the right side of the court. With his defender heavily guarding basket side, Carter settled for a tough fall-away baseline jumper that bounced off the back side of the rim.
“I knew we were down and needed a basket,” Carter said after the game. “I needed to get it in and I didn’t. I just missed the shot.”
The end was emotional for a visibly deflated Bruton bunch, but Dillard, as usual, gave a positive outlook on the future.
“I think everybody feels a little bit of pain, but with pain and this lesson, hopefully we’ll grow from it and be able to move forward in a positive way,” said Dillard, who loses just one senior in Simmons who saw the court Tuesday.
Added Doucet, “We’ll be back [to the state tournament] for sure.”
