Brophy 54
Chaparral 48
By Erik T. Masingill ’12
THE ROUNDUP
The Brophy basketball team increased its division win streak to seven games after a 54-48 victory over the Chaparral Firebirds at Grand Canyon University Arena Thursday, Jan. 12.
The Broncos trailed at halftime but rallied in the second half to seal the win similar to their first 55-51 victory over the Firebirds Dec. 9 where the Broncos overcame a 12-point halftime deficit.
“Every game is different,” said head coach Mr. Tony Fuller of the Jan. 12 victory.
The Broncos got out to a quick 2-0 lead, but then scored nine points in the first quarter while the Firebirds scored 16. Brophy went 5/16 in shot attempts in the first period.
Tim Kempton ’13 led the Broncos in the quarter with four points.
Both teams scored 11 points in the second quarter as Chaparral maintained its five-point lead at halftime, 27-22.
Robert Relf ’13 led the Broncos in the second quarter with six points. Brophy only hit 5/12 shot attempts.
In the third period, the Broncos began their comeback with a 14-6 scoring run led by Charlie Coppola ’13 with six points and two steals.
Five different Broncos scored during the run as they won the quarter 16-11 to tie the game at 38 going into the fourth.
Brophy began the fourth quarter with an early 7-0 run. Chaparral then went on a 5-0 run to cut Brophy’s lead to 45-43 with 3:53 left.
The Firebirds did not score another basket until 22.5 seconds left as the Broncos already added eight more points to increase the lead to 53-45.
A made free throw by James Harper ’12 along with a buzzer-beating three-point shot from Chaparral ended the game with a 54-48 victory for the Broncos.
Fred Gammage ’12 scored 11 points and shot 4/7 on free throws. Kempton scored 12 points and Relf ended with 10 points.
The Broncos shot 7/13 on free throws in the game.
“I thought the difference in the game was Charlie (Coppola),” Mr. Fuller said. “He came in and brought some energy defensively, got a charge, got three steals, got us going defensively and turned the game around.”
Mr. Fuller agreed the second half was much better for the Broncos.
“I thought we attacked and played physical,” he said. “We matched their physicality and we got the ball inside. We stopped taking so many jump shots.”
The Broncos increased their overall record to 15-3 and their division record to 7-1. They currently are on an overall four-game win streak.
The Broncos will travel back home to take on the Mountain View Toros Friday, Jan. 13. The last time these two teams faced each other was in last year’s state championship game where the Toros won 50-29.
More photos from the game:
