Time runs out for Brandywine in MHSAA Division 3 girls basketball championship game

EAST LANSING, Mich. — If only Brandywine had five more seconds or one more timeout left.

The No. 2-ranked Bobcats nearly pulled off a miraculous comeback against No. 1 Ypsilanti Arbor Prep Saturday, but time simply ran out. Brandywine’s late rally fell just short, resulting in a painful 33-30 loss to the Gators in the MHSAA Division 3 state championship game at Michigan State’s Breslin Center.

“We got hot a little late it seemed like, right?” said Brandywine coach Josh Hood. “When you’re not thinking about it, you know you have to throw something up. That’s our team; they’re resilient. When it got to nine with two minutes to go, it could’ve gotten ugly out there, but they battled back.”

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Brandywine trailed 33-24 with 29.3 seconds left. Senior Ellie Knapp hit a ‘3’ nine seconds later to cut the deficit to six. After a timeout and subsequent quick foul, Gators senior Stacy Utomi missed two free-throws. Bobcat senior Kadence Brumitt grabbed the rebound and quickly moved up the court.

The ball eventually found its way into the hands of Miley Young, with the junior making a ‘3’ with eight seconds to go. The clock doesn’t stop after a made shot in high school, though, so precious seconds ticked off as Arbor Prep went to inbound the ball.

The Gators did eventually throw the ball in, and as soon as it was caught, the final horn sounded. Hood had used his last timeout after the Knapp triple, meaning the Bobcats could do nothing to stop the clock.

Turnovers and free-throws ended up being two of the biggest things to cost Brandywine. They coughed the ball up 18 times compared to seven for the Gators. The Bobcats also went 2-of-10 from the charity stripe, while Arbor Prep made seven of its 12 freebies.

“Against their pressure, it’s hard to keep it under 20 turnovers,” Hood said. “We did a really good job of attacking I thought, but against their pressure, (18 turnovers) isn’t a big stat. As long as you don’t turn it over for layups, which I thought we did a pretty good job of. They then had to go against our defense, and if you look at Arbor Prep’s scorers — you hold them to 33, you’re doing a pretty good job.”

Brandywine (26-2) led, 7-6, after the first quarter. Two made shots in less than 10 seconds by Gators senior Taylor Wallace in the opening moments of the second frame, though, put Arbor Prep (25-4) ahead for good.

The defensive slugfest between the two teams left the score at 15-9 at halftime. The Gators’ lead reached nine, 21-12, early in the third quarter before the Bobcats rallied to make it a 22-19 contest going into the fourth.

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Brandywine would get as close as two points, as a free-throw from Brumitt made it 22-20 with 6:19 left in the game.

Junior Adelyn Drotoz led Brandywine with nine points. Brumitt added seven, Knapp and junior Adeline Gill five each and Young four.

“I’m quite proud of my team for making it this far,” Knapp said. “But I’m also disappointed because we were so close and couldn’t finish.”

“I’m happy we made it here and happy for the year,” Brumitt added. “I’m proud of the team, but also disappointed we didn’t finish the job.”

It’s a disappointing end to a historic year for the Bobcats, who were playing in their first state championship game in program history. Meanwhile, it’s the third state title in program history for Arbor Prep, which opened just 13 years ago.

“They’re very excited to be the public school state champions, I’m going to be honest,” said Hood of his team. “It is what it is. … There’s a lot of people that can learn from these girls. They were the big thing coming up, and the last three years, we didn’t get it done. They could’ve folded, and instead they rose up. And so, I was really proud of them.”

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Late Brandywine rally falls short in MHSAA D3 girls basketball title game