Brenner, Panthers Surge To Regional Final
By Mike Deak
InkFreeNews
NEW CASTLE – NorthWood may or may not have had a good night’s sleep Friday night ahead of Saturday morning’s New Castle Boys Basketball Regional. After a virtual sleepwalk through the first half of the Class 3-A semi-final against the home-sided New Castle Trojans, Cade Brenner and the Panthers awoke and put on a show.
Brenner was sensational in a 44-42 NorthWood win over New Castle, the Panthers advancing to the regional final set for later this evening.
Brenner dropped in 27 points to lead all scorers, notching 10 of NorthWood’s 13 points in the first half. The Panthers found themselves down 20-13 at the half, neither team really showing much gusto in one of the largest arenas in high school basketball.
Coming out of the half, however, Ben Vincent opened with a three then Brenner followed with four straight points to tie the game at 20-20. Brenner then hit two free throws to give NorthWood its first lead at 22-20. A three from Brenner early in the fourth had the Panthers up 33-27 and holding all of the momentum.
“(Gavin Welch) was face guarding me and was up on me the whole game, I was trying to get screens and come off cuts,” Brenner said. On hitting the three early in the second half, “That was pretty good. The crowd went wild and we held that poise.”
Ian Raasch provided a boost in the fourth. Despite an 0-5 performance for the game from the floor, Raasch was 6-6 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter, his final two makes pushing NorthWood’s lead to 42-36.
New Castle made one final push, Trey Miller connecting on a three to cut the lead in half, and after Brenner was 1-2 from the line with 4.9 seconds to go, Cole McDaniel hit the first of two free throws, his second was intentionally missed but rebounded by Brenner as time ran out.
“Our interior defense, I felt in the first half, they had a post presence and they were driving the ball to the basket,” said NorthWood head coach Aaron Wolfe. “I think our team understood the urgency of the situation and were able to find another gear or level, and I thought that showed up for us defensively in the second half as well.”
New Castle bows out 9-16 overall, McDaniel leading the team with 15 points and Will Grieser with 11 points, four rebounds and four steals.
Raasch and Vincent each finished with six points for the Panthers (16-8), which advance to tonight’s 7:30 p.m. championship against the Leo Lions (22-4), a 79-43 winner over Ole Miss (17-9) in the second game of the regional championship.