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Second-half surge powers South Range over Girard
Raiders’ Brooks scores 18 of his game-high 24 points after intermission against Girard
By Greg Gulas
GIRARD
Chris Brooks has been on a tear of late for the South Range boys basketball team.
On Tuesday night, it took him a half to get going before that tear continued.
Brooks scored 18 of his game-high 24 points in the second half as he helped turn a slim 19-18 halftime lead into a 53-45 win over Girard in Northeast 8 Conference action.
“They gave me the middle and it was wide open, so I took advantage of those opportunities, especially in the second half,” Brooks said. “That opened up the lanes for our offense and we were able to run our plays better. At the half, Coach [John] Cullen emphasized passing and attacking the bucket and I think we did a much better job of doing that in the second half.”
Neither team could get going in the opening period, but Girard’s Nick Bonamase and Matt Payich clicked from beyond the arc to help the Indians (7-4, 3-3 Northeast 8) build an 11-6 lead with 3:04 remaining in the frame.
Buckets by Ben Irons, Dante DiGaetano and Nick Matos helped the Raiders (9-4, 4-2) end on a 6-0 to take a 12-11 lead heading to the second quarter.
Brooks and Girard’s Austin Claussell each had five points in the second quarter as the Raiders clung to a one-point halftime margin.
Claussell finished with 19 points and Payich 10 for the Indians.
“Tonight, you had two teams with a lot of pride and history going at. The first half wasn’t pretty and I was concerned that we didn’t get to the free throw line, but you have to credit Girard for that,” Cullen said. “Chris has played flawlessly the last couple of games. He’s being game-planned and getting to the free-throw line more.
“We felt that whichever team comes out of the game, they would have control of their own destiny and we wanted that team to be us.”
Brooks scored 14 points in the third quarter, Jaxon Anderson added four points and the Raiders outscored the Indians 23-13 in the period to open a 42-31 lead.
“At the half, Coach Cullen told us to execute our plays and to take what they were giving us,” Anderson said. “They were giving us slips up the middle and we were able to convert. They are an excellent team and we knew going in that we had to stop their top four players from scoring.”
Claussell scored Girard’s first nine points of the final quarter to cut the deficit to 47-40, but that was as close the Indians could get.
Girard has now lost three of its last five outings. South Range has won four in a row.
“They didn’t make a huge run, just enough of a run,” Girard coach Craig Hannon said. “Their length and overall size bothered us a bit and we couldn’t recover. Austin Claussell is a special player, but outside of him we struggled to score. We just need more consistency. It’s been there, so I’m not worried.”
The Raiders finished 19 of 43 from the field while the Indians canned 18 of 43 field-goal attempts.
South Range held a 29-18 rebound advantage with Brooks and DiGaetano each hauling down six for the Raiders.
Payich snagged six rebounds for the Indians.