BBK Final: Wilmington 64 Western Brown 55

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MT.ORAB — Calling it a “Great program win and a total team effort,” Wilmington High School head basketball coach Matt Kramer was elated Tuesday night following the Hurricane’s 64-55 victory over Western Brown.

The SBAAC American Division squads battled tooth and nail throughout the first half, as they were deadlocked at 16 at the end of the opening quarter. The Hurricane took a 34-31 lead into the locker room at halftime.

In the third quarter, Wilmington turned it up defensively, outscoring Western Brown 13-7 to push the lead to 47-38 after three.

Western Brown made a run twice in the final period, cutting the Hurricane lead to a single point, but Wilmington maintained its composure down the stretch and capitalized at the line to put the game in the victory column.

Wilmington connected on 12 of 16 free throw attempts.

“As a first-year coach, there’s so many things going on and multiple moving parts,” commented Kramer. “Tonight, we had things go right for us. You hope the kids will buy in to your program and we saw that here.

”We had an outstanding effort from the potential ‘player of the year’ in the conference in Cam Coomer. He really took control of the game (35 points scored) and although Matt Butcher did not score a lot, he hit the boards well, and was tough on defense. I told them if we could hold our own on the boards, and keep it reasonably close, we could win this game.”

Kramer was correct, as the Broncos won the rebound battle by just one, 24-23.

Perhaps the brightest spot for the ‘Cane was the contribution from sophomore Collin Barker. He came off the bench to help ignite the Hurricane in the second and fourth quarters, with five treys and 17 total points.

“Collin instantly became our third scoring option and he really hit some big shots, especially when they started making their run in the fourth quarter,” said Kramer.

Another player drawing praise from his coach was Brady Vilvens, who made a key block on Zyon Tull’s three-point attempt from the top of the circle. He then grabbed the loose ball and zipped a pass to the streaking Coomer who threw down a thunder-jam to help slam the door on the Broncos comeback hopes.

Tull and Yani Williams each scored 14 points for the Broncos (12-7, 5-3).

Wilmington (7-9, 6-2) returns to Fred Summers Court Friday, still fighting for a potential share of the SBAAC American Division, facing co-leader New Richmond.

Western Brown won the junior varsity contest with a strong fourth quarter 61-47.

SUMMARY

Feb 4, 2020

@Western Brown High School

Wilmington 64 Western Brown 55

WI^16^18^13^17^^64

WB^16^15^7^17^^55

(64) WILMINGTON (2fg-3fg-ft-tp) Butcher 2-1-3-10, Coomer 10-2-9-35, Custis 1-0-0-2, Barker 1-5-0-17, Vilvens 0-0-0-0, Glass 0-0-0-0, Jones 0-0-0-0. TOTALS 14-8-12-64.

(55) WESTERN BROWN (2fg-3fg-ft-tp) Williams 7-0-0-14, Miller 1-1-2-7, Moore 5-0-0-10, Lunsford 0-0-0-0, Shaffer 0-0-1-1, Tull 3-2-2-14, Drew Novak 3-1-0-9. TOTALS 19-4-5-55.

Chris Custis with a free throw for Wilmington during Tuesday night’s game at Western Brown. (Deanna Liermann Photo)
https://www.wnewsj.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2020/02/web1_BBK_CustisFT_de0204.jpgChris Custis with a free throw for Wilmington during Tuesday night’s game at Western Brown. (Deanna Liermann Photo)

By Bill Liermann

WNJ Sports Writer

Bill Liermann covers college and high school sports for the News Journal. Follow him on Twitter @lierjet.

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