Brookfield celebrates Senior Night just right

By DOUG CHAPIN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

BROOKFIELD — Now that’s how Senior Night is supposed to go.

Senior post player Morgan Bonekovic scored a career-high 38 points and went over the 1,500-point mark for her career. Fellow seniors Lauren Gentile (11 points) and Kelly Jones (10) also scored in double figures Thursday as Brookfield High’s girls basketball team topped Liberty, 67-51.

“It was a good win for our seniors and we had a nice crowd here, so I’m happy for them,” Brookfield coach Shawn Hammond said. “For the last four years, they’ve been grinding it out. They’re good kids and they deserve the praise and I’m real happy with the way they played. They will be leaving some big shoes to fill.”

Bonekovic came into the game with 1,475 career points. She grabbed nine rebounds and blocked five shots.

The six-footer made 17-of-25 shots from the field as the Warriors moved the ball well on offense, finding Bonekovic often on the low post.

Gentile added six rebounds and three assists and Jones contributed five assists. Junior guards Meghan Reiser (eight assists, five steals) and Kodi Brenner (six assists, six rebounds) also contributed for the Warriors (18-2, 13-1 TAC).

Despite the individual accomplishments, Bonekovic was happy about avenging the Warriors’ only TAC loss. The Leopards (14-6, 10-4 TAC) won a 44-43 decision at Liberty earlier in the season.

“That was a really big factor coming into this game,” Bonekovic said. “We’ve been thinking about this game since the end of the last Liberty game. It was nice to get this win, we’ve been working really hard for it.”

Liberty coach John Hritz had praise for both teams.

“Bonekovic showed what she can do. That’s why she’s probably the best player in our conference,” Hritz said. “She’s so strong and hard to stop. We tried everything on her, we just couldn’t stop her.

“Plus, it was their senior night, they were fired up and they came to play. You have to take your hat off to their team and coaching staff.

“But I’m also proud of our kids,” Hritz said. “No one expected us to go 14-6, I think we over-achieved. We’ve got season two coming up starting Monday and we go from there.”

The Leopards face Poland on Monday in the Division II tournament at Fitch.

Brittany Armour and Melissa Dykes scored 18 points each for Liberty. Armour also had nine rebounds, Brianna Pettway had four steals and Dykes added three assists, three steals and two blocked shots.

Brookfield set the tone in the first quarter, making eight of its 10 field goal attempts and recording eight assists, on the way to a 21-7 quarter lead.

“Last time we played them they stayed in their zone defense,” Hammond said. “We did OK, but we didn’t move the ball like we did tonight. We were real patient. Once we got the ball reversed things opened up.”

The advantage reached 18 points several times in the second quarter, but Liberty was back within 14 (33-19) at the half.

The Warriors ran the lead out to 44-23, but Liberty scored seven straight and the lead again was 14. It was Brookfield’s turn next, and the Warriors put together a 9-3 run for a 53-33 lead after three quarters. Liberty scored the first nine points of the final quarter, but that 11-point deficit was the closest the Leopards got.

Brookfield plays Middlefield Cardinal on Wednesday in the Division III tournament at Ashtabula Lakeside.