Coming off of a season where our primarily junior cast lost eight games by less than four points, and beginning this season with a 12-4 record, we had hoped that nothing but blue skies loomed ahead, but we learned once again that life isn’t fair, as we played well putting up 73, 75, 99, and 86 in four of our following nine games without success, and then on Friday night in the SyDome, after leading 45-33 at halftime, we again succumbed with 76 points on the scoreboard, despite Logan Woosley setting his second career-best in three outings (33 and 38) and Mason Sepate adding 21. As if cursed, we were unable to overcome a second half where the Breds hit on 10 three-point goals to win 80-76 despite being outscored 52-24 from inside the arc, and 15-11 from the free-throw line.
On our broadcast, coming out of the first half, I used the old coach-speak of the first three minutes of the second half being pivotal in maintaining, or building on our halftime lead. I was spot on. The Breds came out guns blazing nailing five 3s, cutting into the Brossart lead to now trail 62-57 with eight minutes to play in the game. The Breds took their first second half lead 63-62, followed by the two teams remaining within a six point range before the Breds opened up 77-70 with under a minute to play. With just seconds remaining in the game, however, Brossart had a chance to cut that lead to one possession, but came up short, and NCC went on to win the game.
Mason Sepate moves into 21st place among all-time Brossart scorers (972) with 21 points, and for the second time in three outings Logan Woosley put up a career-high 38 points. Coby Kramer lit up the SyDome night with seven three-pointers contributing to his 24 points on the night. Ian Mann scored 18 that included a trio of 3s, Luke Runyun was their other double-figure scorer, hitting four 3s en-route to a 16 point night. The other 3 came from J.J. Luhn.