Bees slow down Cavaliers, reach Region III, Division 3, final

Chris Glaize could brag at one time of being on Brookville’s only state playoff basketball team. Now he can boast of being a member of both.

Glaize, a Bees assistant coach, was the starting point guard for Brookville’s state playoff team in 1988, which before Friday night was the last year the Bees made the playoffs.

They clinched their second state playoff appearance with a 46-38 win over visiting Lord Botetourt on Friday.

“It’s special. I can’t even explain it to you,” said a giddy Glaize after the game. “When (head coach Chris) Young got here, he built this program from the ground up. This is great for the community and great for the school.”

Brookville (19-5) advances to next week’s Group AA, Division 3, playoffs, but first it hosts Liberty in the Region III, Division 3, championship game tonight at 8 p.m. The Bees have won three of their four meetings with the Minutemen this season.

“We know what they do. They know what we do,” Young said. “It’s a matter of just showing up and executing, because you don’t have much time to prepare for each other.”

Lord Botetourt (16-9) threw a variety of defensive looks at Brookville’s already-selective offense.

The result was a very slow and deliberate offensive game. The Bees led 8-4 after the first quarter and 19-13 at the half. It got slightly more exciting in the second half.

“Shoot, (our slow offense) was frustrating me. It was hard for me to go dormant for two quarters,” said Thomas, who finished with 11 points and seven rebounds.

Five of the Cavaliers’ seven second-half field goals were 3-pointers. The long-range shots helped them get back in the game.

“They just hit big shots,” Young said.

The biggest might have been Hunter Foley’s wide-open 3 that tied it 36-all midway through the fourth quarter. He drove the ball up the court, spotted up, and upon noticing no defenders near him, launched the shot.

“I was looking for someone to cut across the lane. I pulled up because I was going to throw a pass, but nobody was anywhere within 10 feet of me, so I just took it and knocked it down,” Foley said.

The momentum from that shot was short-lived as Brookville re-took the lead on Corby Weiss’ stick back on the other end.

The Bees outscored the Cavaliers 8-2 the rest of the way to ice the win.

Brookville grabbed 33 rebounds, 20 on the defensive end. That, Young said, was a major factor in the victory.

“They threw a lot of different defenses at us. They ran a diamond-and-one, a box-and-one, a 2-3 zone, a 3-2. They ran some man,” Young said. “When you run those junk defenses and zones, it gives you opportunities to get in gaps and get rebounds, and we did.”

Josh Spigner tied Thomas for the team lead with 11 points. Weiss led the Bees with nine rebounds.

The numbers might not have been pretty, but the end result was.

“I’ve been involved in so much this senior year. There’s probably nothing bigger,” Thomas said. “(Making the football) state championship for me was biggest, but this is pretty big for me as well.”