Warriors capture the final TAC title

The 49-31 win over LaBrae was Brookfield’s 17th this season.

By DOUG CHAPIN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

BROOKFIELD — The Brookfield High Warriors clinched the final Trumbull Athletic Conference girls basketball championship with a 49-31 triumph Monday over LaBrae.

“Our JVs won it tonight, too,” Brookfield coach Shawn Hammond said. “For both groups to win in on the same night, it’s nice.

“We talked a little bit about it being the last title, with the league changing next year,” Hammond said. “We won it the last two years. As competitive as this league has been, it’s a pretty nice accomplishment to win it two years in a row. It’s not easy.”

Guards Kodi Brenner and Kelly Jones scored 15 and 14 points, respectively, to lead the Warriors (17-2, 12-1 TAC).

Post player Morgan Bonekovic contributed 11 points while drawing a lot of attention from the LaBrae defense.

Brenner also had five assists and four steals, Bonekovic grabbed six rebounds, Lauren Gentile dished out four assists and Meghan Reiser made four steals.

Senior guard Angelica Pugh led the Vikings (11-8, 8-5 TAC) with 15 points and Bayle Boggs pulled down eight rebounds.

“I thought we came out shooting well early, then we just kind of went cold,” Hammond said. “We were forcing some things inside, then we calmed down a little bit and Kodi made a couple of threes and we started to get some penetration.

“LaBrae right now is playing with a lot of confidence, beating Liberty last week, so we knew we were going to have our hands full. They did a nice job trying to shut us down in the middle.

“We made a few adjustments at halftime and got a few inside baskets, and we became more patient as the game went on.”

A 10-0 Brookfield run from 1:02 remaining in the first quarter to the 5:49 mark of the second gave the Warriors a 21-9 advantage. LaBrae, which saw a six-game winning streak end, got back to within 21-16 with a 7-0 flurry, but the deficit was 26-17 at the half.

The Warriors scored the first six points of period three for a 32-17 lead and LaBrae was unable to get closer than 11 the rest of the way, 36-25, in the first minute of the fourth quarter.

Brookfield recorded 15 steals and forced eight turnovers while holding LaBrae to 10-of-30 (33 percent) shooting.

The Warriors play host to Liberty on Thursday, a game that until last week was a title game. It still will be a big game for Brookfield, considering the Leopards won a 44-43 decision on Jan. 10.

“They got us over there, they played well, so we know we’ve got to be ready to play,” Hammond said. “They’re not going to come in and lay down, we know that. They are very athletic and they’re going to throw different presses at us. We’ve got to play. We don’t have any breaks because next Wednesday we play in the tournament. We want to be playing with confidence heading into the tournament.”

Brookfield and LaBrae will play in the Division III Sectional-District at Lakeside High in Ashtabula.

The Vikings play Monday against Pymatuning Valley while the second-seeded Warriors face Middlefield Cardinal on Feb. 13.