Fans of high school basketball filled the seats at Wesbanco Arena and were treated to an offensive game as the Brooke Bruins and St. Clairsville Red Devils battled in the Sam Andy Classic. The event honors the late Sam Andy, the former Wheeling Park High School coach. Coach Andy earned 611 wins in his coaching career. The game between these two schools was a great start to the evening. Head Coach Adam Shinsky’s Bruins got out to a quick start and took an early 8-3 lead to force a St Clairsville timeout. The two squads combined for 42 points in the first quarter. Red Devils sophomore guard Ollie Muhly hit a layup at the buzzer to give St Clairsville the lead 22-20 at the end of the first quarter. The Bruins and Red Devils would both score 24 in the second quarter and St Clairsville took a 46-44 lead into the locker room for half time. Tyson Pastor had 21 points in the 1st Half for the Red Devils and senior Bruins standout Leyton Toepfer had 19 points for Brooke. Bruins forward Garett Milam was 3-4 from behind the arc. The teams were almost even in the rebounds category with the Red Devils pulling down eleven and Brooke pulling down ten.
The momentum began to shift in the second half. St Clairsville opened up the second half with a 4-0 run and forced the Bruins to take a timeout. The Bruins responded and took the lead late in the third quarter 56-53. However, the Red Devils made some key defensive stops and retook the lead 62-57 at the end of the third quarter. St Clairsville opened up the fourth quarter, much like they opened up the third quarter with a 4-0 run forcing another Brooke timeout. After St Clairsville took a ten point lead with 4:19 to go in the game the Bruins took another timeout. Both teams continued to battle late into the fourth quarter, and Bruin junior Evan Urso hit a huge three with 1:46 to go but Brooke was still trailing 78-68. The teams exchanged a few more baskets before the final buzzer and St Clairsville took home the 82-71 victory over Brooke to improve to 1-1 on the young season.
Tyson Pastor shot 62% from the field collecting 35 points, three assists, two blocks, and pulled down six rebounds. “We really locked in on defense tonight and it led us to a lot of fast break points. We played with a faster pace and a lot more energy than we did in our first game,” Pastor commented. Coach Clifford stated about Pastor’s performance, “He was disappointed in the way he played on Tuesday, which for a lot of guys isn’t that bad, but he was disappointed but I was so confident he was going to come out and play very well today, that everyone was going to come out and play well today.” Lone Red Devil senior Cole Thoburn had 17 points, three assists, two blocks and five rebounds. Thoburn commented on his team’s performance, “We hope this is the start of a win streak and we can keep this thing going. If we keep playing hard and playing together we can get a streak going and have a great year. We like to play fast and keep the ball moving and that’s how we score points.” Junior guard Brady Schafer went 7-15 with 15 points, four assists, three steals and three rebounds. “They switched to a zone, we were really moving the ball around and took a lot of high percentage shots and we got some buckets. We have a lot of guys back from last year, we had a rough one on Tuesday but we bounced back and we want to keep the momentum going forward,” stated Schafer. Muhly and classmate Griffin Straub each contributed off the bench with Muhly getting eight points and Straub four. Straub pulled down four rebounds as well. “Brooke can score the ball well, we are going to be as good as our defense is. We guard and played with more energy in the second half. When you are efficient on offense and giving energy on defense it’s usually a recipe for success. We took a lot of really good shots in the last two and half quarters and we’ve had a lot of time together recently and over the summer and they’ve really come together,” explained Coach Clifford.
The Bruins relied heavily on their senior leader in Leyton Toepfer. Toepfer sank three shots from behind the arc on his way to a 30 point night. He also dished out six assists and pulled down three rebounds. Garrett Milam chipped in with 13 points, six rebounds and an assist. Freshman Grant Yost also pulled down six rebounds and added six points of his own. Senior post Nate Kimball shot 5-7 from the field and added 12 points and six rebounds.
St Clairsville held a slight 23-22 edge on rebounds. Brooke was 8-12 shooting from behind the arc. After the win, St Clairsville will hit road on Tuesday night to take on a red hot Bellaire team. The Bruins fell to 1-1 on the season and will take on Oak Glen next Friday.
Photo by Kayal Crum
Story by Chris Thoburn
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