Inside moves lift Brookfield over Niles

January 3, 2015 at 12:06a.m.

NILES

Prior to Friday’s non-conference game between Brookfield and Niles, Warriors coach Bill Kovach stressed to his team the importance of working the ball inside and using its size advantage to get off to a fast start.

The Warriors heeded the advice of their coach to perfection

The result was a 58-49 Brookfield road win which lifted its record to 6-2. Niles falls to 3-4.

Thanks to the inside presence of Jacob Jackson, the Warriors raced off to an early 15-point advantage and led 17-4 at the end of the first quarter.

After trailing by 17 at the half, Niles eventually cut its deficit to five points in the early stages of the fourth quarter. But the Dragons were never able to narrow the gap from that point.

Jackson led the early Brookfield assault, scoring all eight of his points in the first five minutes of the game.

Seth Wallace paced the Warriors’ balanced attack with 15 points. Brian Hiner and Davon Sims each tallied 12, while Marc Kraml matched Jackson’s eight points.

Niles junior Cameron Kane led all scorers with 23 points.

“We wanted to get the ball inside to exploit our size advantage, and we did a very nice job of executing our game plan,” Kovach said. “We did a good job of looking high, looking low and working it inside.

“Our guys got a little hesitant when they got into a little bit of foul trouble, but overall I thought we did a nice job against a very dangerous team.”

Brookfield matched its 17-point first quarter output in the second period, this time mostly from the outside. Kraml had a pair of 3-pointers in the period, while Sims scored seven points, including a 3-pointer.

Kane scored 16 of his points following intermission to help get Niles back into the game. The Red Dragons eventually cut their deficit to 46-41 with 4:44 left in the game, but Hiner scored a pair of buckets and converted two free throws down the stretch to secure the Brookfield win.

“We were really concerned with [Kane] — he had 26 against us last year and he’s one of the best all-around players in the area,” Kovach said. “We wanted to contain him, and to force Niles to take time off the clock before they put shots up. We wanted to slow things down on that end of the court.”

Niles coach Ron Price acknowledged that his team struggled because of a size disadvantage and a lack of experience.

“Unfortunately, we can’t gain any size through experience — we’re stuck with that,” Price quipped. “As far as our play, we still have some growing and learning to do. Right now Cameron is the only guy with a lot of experience from a year ago, so we’re a work in progress.”

Brookfield returns home on Tuesday to host LaBrae. On the same night Niles travels to Austintown Fitch.