In basketball, there is a saying that if a team wins the rebound battle, they win the game. In tonight’s conference game between the Braves of Chopticon, and the Patriots of Northern, that proved to be true. The Braves out-rebounded the Patriots 23-19 and one player shined above the rest. Chopticon senior guard Pierre Mitchell scored 30 points, and beat the Northern man defense they threw at them.

The game tipped off, and both teams tried to understand what the other wanted to do on defense. Both teams passed the ball around to each other trying to find holes in the defense. The first quarter was very slow paced, and the score reflected it, standing at 10-9 in favor of Chopticon.

  In the second quarter the pace of the game increased as both teams began to learn each other. They began to take better shots and score more quickly, instead of settling for bad shots as they had in the first quarter. Mitchell scored 12 in this second quarter, and the rest of the Braves chipped in with what they could. The score was 26-22 Chopticon at the half.

Coming out of the half, both teams had adjustments that slowed the pace of the game down as the offenses had to make adjustments. The Braves made adjustments quicker than the Patriots, and the smallest lead they had was 6, and that was at the end of the quarter. The score stood at 40-34 Chopticon.

In the fourth quarter the Patriots went into desperation mode, a three pointer by Bryce Rogers cut the lead to two points with a minute remaining. The Braves missed a shot on the other end, and the Patriots had a chance to take the lead. The Patriots missed their shot, and fouled Mitchell. Bryce Rogers momentarily lost composure and shoved a Chopticon player and was called for a technical foul. This gave the Braves two free throws on top of the two because of the original foul, and possession of the ball. Chopticon made all four free throws, and made a three point basket after the ball was inbounded to complete the scoring of the game.

The Braves were led in scoring by Pierre Mitchell, with 30 points, and 4 rebounds. Fellow senior T.J. Berry also chipped in with 9 points and 3 rebounds. The Patriots leading scorer was center Sammy Thomas who was triple teamed as a result of the Braves zone defense and still managed 22 points. Senior Bryce Rogers chipped with 9 points and 7 boards.

Max Tayman covers SMAC for theBayNet.com.
Email Max at mtayman10@gmail.com