By Mark Carpenter-
After a tough loss to West Union in the semi-finals of the 2018 Holiday Classic, the Peebles Indians were back on the court on Saturday to vie for third place honors, facing the struggling Manchester Greyhounds, the host team for the tournament. Both teams are extremely young, but the difference in this contest was the experience of Peebles junior point guard Weston Browning. Browning was the player of the game, racking up 20 points and earning a spot on the Classic All-Tournament Team, as the Indians got their fifth win of the season, racing by the Greyhounds by a final score of 57-35.
“At this point in the season we’re 5-3 and if you had told me at the beginning of the season that we’d finish 2018 at 5-3, I’d have been ecstatic,” said Peebles head coach Josh Arey in a postgame interview with C103’s Don Bowles. “We feel like we are progressing and moving forward and that’s all we can ask for.”
“There’s going to be times that we put points on the board but mostly we have got to sit down and guard people if we want to get where we want to be by the end of the season. Manchester is getting better each time out and remember they are playing a lot of freshmen, they have good days ahead.”
The Indians got baskets from Easton Wesley and Kyle Lightner on their first two possessions of the game, matched by baskets from Manchester’s Kyle Reaves and Dylan Colvin, but that tie was shattered and Peebles took the lead for good with a 9-0 run that included a pair of Browning buckets and an Oakley Burba three-pointer. The Hounds got an old-fashioned three-point play from Isaiah Redmon to draw closer but late first quarter scores by Browning and Dawson Mills gave the Indians an 18-9 lead after the initial eight minute of play.
The offenses struggled early in the second stanza, but a Redmon three-pointer drew Manchester within 19-14 at the 5:25 mark. The Indians answered with baskets by Burba and Mills while the Greyhounds countered with hoops from Brady Flack and Jacob Calvert to keep the margin at five. Again, though, the Indians had an answer, reeling off six straight to go in front 29-18.
Isaiah Scott drew the Hounds closer, scoring from close range with 38 seconds to go in the half, but with just five ticks remaining, Wesley banked in a jumper from about 12 feet away to send Peebles to the locker room with a 31-20 advantage.
As the second half got underway, the Indians could not put away the pesky Greyhounds as a 7-2 Manchester run, highlighted by a Scott three-point play, kept the host squad close, trailing just 33-27 at the 3:56 mark of the third. The calm and cool Browning responded with his own “and one” and then another basket to extend the Peebles lead back to double digits, but the third period ended with buckets by Scott and Calvert that kept hopes alive for the home side, trailing by seven as the final period began.
That final period turned out to be a disaster for the Greyhounds, at least the first three and a half minutes did, as the Indians score on their first six possessions of the fourth quarter, reeling off 12 straight points to put any doubt about the outcome of this battle to rest. The run started with a Wesley stick back, included another Browning three-point play, plus a Hunter White basket as the Peebles lead suddenly ballooned to 50-31.
A basket by Scott with 4:30 to play finally ended the Manchester drought, but the Tribe ended the contest on an 8-2 run and coasted home with third place bragging right by virtue of a 57-35 triumph.
“We just have to keep improving on the defensive end and in our decision-making processes,” said Coach Arey. “We have to get better at reading things and the kids are really moving in that direction.”
Browning’s 20 led the winners (5-3), who also got 8 points each from Wesley and Mills and 7 apiece from Burba and Lightner. Manchester (1-9) was led by Isaiah Scott and Dylan Colvin with 9 points each, with Jacob Calvert scoring 7, and Isaiah Redmon hitting 6. Colvin was the Greyhound representative on the All-Tournament Team.
Peebles
18 13 7 19 —57
Manchester
9 11 11 4 —35
Peebles (57): Mills 4 0-0 8, White 1 2-6 4, Burba 3 0-0 7, Camp 1 1-3 3, Lightner 3 1-2 7, Browning 9 2-2 20, Wesley 4 0-0 8, Team 25 6-13 57.
Manchester (35): Colvin 4 1-3 9, Redmon 2 1-1 6, Flack 1 0-1 2, Reaves 1 0-0 2, Scott 4 1-1 9, Calvert 3 1-2 7, Team 15 4-8 35.
Three-Point Goals:
Peebles (1)- Burba 1
Manchester (1)- Redmon 1
