By Kalvin D. Perron
Staff Reporter
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PICKFORD — The Brimley Bays offense got hot at the right place and at the right time. After scoring a season low seven points in the third quarter of the EUPC District Championship game against the Cedarville Trojans on Friday, March 4, the Bays offense lit up the scoreboard in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Trojans 27-13 and escaping with the 62-57 victory. Bays point guard and EUPC Player of the Year Travis Lynn led the fourth quarter attack for the Brimley offense, scoring 12 of his game-high 20 points in the final eight minutes of the contest.
Cody Robbins got the Bays off to a fast start in the opening seconds of the game by scoring the first five points of the contest. After Cedarville's big man Jeff Slater finally got his team on the board with a lay-up, the two teams fought back and forth, with the Bays edging the Trojans 16-14 at the end of one. In the second quarter, however, Cedarville capitalized on the Bays five-of-14 shooting and opened up a small 30-28 lead at the half.
Cedarville managed to open up a 44-35 at the end of three, capitalizing once again off a poor Bays shooting quarter in which they shot just three-of-13 from the field. At the end of their disappointing third quarter performance, Brimley Head Coach Reg Robbins rallied his team in the huddle and told them in order for them to come back and win they were going to have do what they do best — play defense.
“I told them, no one's going to go out there and score a nine pointer and get us back into this game. Only our defense is gonna' bring us back,” Robbins said. “In order to win this game we need to take the game one bucket at a time and one defensive stop at a time.”
To anyone that witnessed the previous three quarters, it was apparent that the Bays emerged from the huddle an entirely different team in the fourth quarter. The Bays ripped off a blistering 10-0 run, all the while holding the high-powered Trojans offense scoreless for almost four minutes, and regained the lead at 45-44 with just over four minutes left on the clock. Moments later with Cedarville threatening to make a run, Kellen Perron nailed Brimley's only three pointer of the contest and what Coach Robbins referred to as “the back-breaking three,” to give the Bays a 52-48 lead with under three minutes remaining. With only 56 seconds left on the clock, Travis Lynn nailed two free throws to give the Bays a 60-52 lead, essentially sealing the fate of the Trojans. The Cedarville defense managed to force the Bays into some costly turnovers in the remaining seconds of the game, but the Brimley lead proved insurmountable for the Trojans as the Bays escaped with the 62-57 victory and their second straight district championship.
Going into the championship game, Robbins said he was confident in his team's ability to match up with Cedarville. He also said he knew it was going to be a close game.
“We played them very even both times we faced them this year,” he said. “We beat them by two and they beat us by three. I knew if we were going to beat them we had to play solid defense. Sure it's nice to go out and score 27 points in a quarter, but we only won because of our defense.”
The Bays were led by Travis Lynn with 20 points, including 12 fourth quarter points, nine rebounds, seven assists and five steals. Kellen Perron chipped in 10 points, Darick Bowen eight points and six rebounds, Cody Robbins eight points, Nathan Halvorsen seven points and six rebounds, and Josh Winkler seven points and eight rebounds. The Bays shot 13-23 from the free throw line, including 8-13 in the fourth quarter, and shot 24-58 from the field, which included 9-13 shooting in the fourth. The Bays also committed 25 turnovers.
