Brophy 49
Highland 35

By Justin Janssen ’11
THE ROUNDUP

On Brophy’s varsity basketball home opener the defense shut down the Highland Hawks limiting them to just 35 points.

The Hawks struggled early on; they didn’t get their first points until 2:44 remained in the opening period and they would only score five points in the quarter.

Brophy’s Brazilian transfer, Rodrigo Furtado ’11, provided a spark off the bench. Furtado hustled on loose balls and delivered critical passes energizing the pinked out crowd.

The game was a “pink out” that coincided with an organ donation drive at the school.

The Broncos led by two after the first quarter, but Highland took their only lead in the game late in the second quarter 14-13.

After back to back made shots by Chris Pierre ’11 and Sai Tummala ’11, the Hawks were put away for good.

Highland wouldn’t score for the rest of the half and Brophy added two more points to take the lead 19-14 at the half.

In the third quarter, the Hawks had their best offensive quarter, but were still outscored 15-13, giving Brophy a 34-27 lead.

Highland would only score eight points in the final quarter and would lose 49-35.

The 49 points are a season low for the Broncos, but the 35 points allowed was the fewest allowed by Brophy this season.

Brophy center Tummala led all scorers with 18 points and also brought down 10 rebounds.

Tummala put an exclamation point on the game when he stole an errant pass and slammed a dunk giving Brophy a 46-32 with a minute to go.

Pierre chipped in with 11 points and James Harper ‘12 added 15 points and six rebounds.

Brandon Duernas led Highland with 10 points, and Conner Toolson added nine points.

With a win Brophy improves to 4-1 on the young season; they are 2-0 in games counted for powerpoints.

The next challenge for the Broncos is their friendly rivals from Tucson, Salpointe Catholic, on Tuesday Dec. 7 at home.