Girard pulls out victory behind Brinker, 43-37

He scored 13 points and six rebounds over Liberty at the Chevrolet Centre.

By GREG GULAS

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT 

YOUNGSTOWN — The Chevrolet Centre proved to be just the right setting for Marty Brinker and the Girard High basketball team.

Fighting and clawing their way to just three wins in their first 14 outings this season, Brinker’s 13 points and six rebounds helped the Indians to a 43-37 win over the Liberty Leopards Tuesday in Trumbull Athletic Conference action.

Coming off a 66-35 pasting of Brookfield Friday, the win gives the Indians back-to-back wins for the first time in six seasons.

“We had trouble with their zone defense in the first half,” Girard coach Mike DelBene said. “We tried to make the necessary adjustments to prepare for that zone after intermission, so when they came out in a man-to-man defense we were able to control the tempo and it became a totally different game.”

“Liberty has an excellent team with plenty of athletes,” DelBene said. “They fought back to take the lead but give credit to our kids. They never lost their composure and just kept fighting at both ends of the court.”

Two buckets from beyond the arc by Adam Charles and Gerald Simpson gave the Indians the early 6-3 lead, but Ed Thomas’ four points helped Liberty score eight of the final 10 points, giving the Leopards an 11-8 lead heading to the second period of play.

In what both teams would agree was a forgettable second quarter, a total of just three buckets rippled the nets; the Leopards outscoring the Indians by a 6-4 count as they forged a 17-12 halftime advantage.

Enter Brinker.

All Brinker did was score the first eight points of the second half, 10 overall in the quarter as Girard outscored the Leopards 18-11 in the period to take a 30-28 lead with one quarter remaining.

“We work really hard in practice and it is now beginning to pay off for us,” Brinker said. “We were waiting for them to switch back to a man-to-man defense because we felt like we had the offense that could hurt them.

“This was a great win for us. The atmosphere was electric,” Brinker said. “When we missed a few free throws at the end it was our defense, however, that rose to the occasion.”

A three-point play by Liberty’s Floyd Showers at 7:01 of the final period gave the Leopards a 33-32 lead, the only time in the second half that they held the upper hand offensively.

The Girard defense then held the Leopards scoreless for 4 minutes and 43 seconds as they built a 38-33 advantage, scoring five of the game’s final nine points to secure the victory.

The Indians were 16 of 36 from the field and two 10 from three-point range while Liberty connected on just 16 of 45 field goal attempts, failing on seven treys attempts.

Liberty (5-10, 3-5) held a 36-26 rebound margin with Showers grabbing a game-high nine caroms, six coming in the second half of play.

All of Girard’s (4-11, 4-5) wins this season have come in conference play.

Both teams committed 14 turnovers.