Brookfield rallies, bests Yo. Christian

Staff report

BROOKFIELD

Jeremy Quinlan and Mike Johnson were Brookfield’s two-man show as the Warriors battled back from a 10-2 deficit to beat Youngstown Christian, 58-54, in a high school boys game Tuesday.

Johnson had all of his 12 points in the second half, nine of which were consecutive that put Brookfield (13-3) ahead for the first and final time.

“Mike had a big second half for us, not just with the 12 points, but also sharing the ball,” Brookfield coach Chris Fahndrich said. “I thought we had good ball movement. When we’re sharing the ball, good things are going to happen.”

While Youngstown Christian’s DeVaun Adams had a game-high 26 points, Quinlan had a team-high 19 points for Brookfield, which made 17 of 18 free throws to 1 of 6 for YCS.

“I thought we were aggressive taking the ball to the basket and I thought we shot extremely well down the stretch,” Fahndrich said of a perfect second half at the line after the Warriors missed one foul shot early in the game.

“That’s the difference,” Fahndrich said of Brookfield outscoring YCS (9-5) in the second half, 35-24, when Johnson came alive, while Quinlan was active peeling down rebounds on the defensive boards.

Youngstown Christian coach Dolph Carroll was resigned to the fact that his Eagles were playing on the road.

“Officials don’t win or lose games, they really don’t,” he said in response to a question about the foul shot discrepancy. “The kids have to execute down the stretch and finish plays.”

Of being outplayed in the second half, 35-24, Carroll said: “They’re a good basketball team; they’re Division III and they came in 12-3 and they had size on us. I thought we kind of shocked them when we jumped out early and they came roaring back, which we told the kids they would. We just lost a little bit of our execution down the stretch. We had a chance to win it, so that’s all we can ask now.”

Of falling behind early, 10-2, Fahndrich said: “We knew we had to settle down. Our defense wasn’t real good early. That’s something we pride ourselves on, so the guys were pretty upset [after an timeout at 4:40 of first quarter].

“Once we were able to adjust to their speed, I thought we did a much better job. Then we were able to cut back into it, even though we were still down at halftime. It’s a game of two halves. With our schedule, we’ll play a week, then be off a week, playing a week, off a week, so it took us a long time to get into a flow.”

Six-foot-eight Preston Sirochman had 11 points and nine rebounds for Brookfield.