BRODHEAD—Brodhead boys basketball head coach Tommy Meier said one of the greatest struggles for his young team this season has been finding the belief that they can win games.
A 67-57 loss to Marshall on Monday night to extend the hosting Cardinals’ losing streak to nine games might sound like the exact opposite of a confidence-booster, but it might be exactly what Brodhead needed.
“The first half was actually one of our better halves this season,” sophomore Cullen Walker said. “We were getting back on defense and we were scoring the ball.”
It didn’t start out that way.
Marshall scored the first 10 points of the night on its way to an 18-4 lead early in the first half. The Brodhead Cardinals looked their age with poor shot selection and sloppy passes while the defense allowed Marshall’s Cardinals to get under the basket for easy layups.
“It seemed like we lacked a little energy,” Meier said. “We couldn’t stop anything in transition and then turnovers led to buckets.”
But with a player of Walker’s caliber on the squad, Brodhead is never truly out of it.
The host Cardinals went on a 19-2 run with Walker accounting for 15 of those points, scoring on everything from long treys to solid drives to the basket. The charge not only got Brodhead back into the game; it put the team in the lead.
“I was feeling good,” Walker said. “The shot was feeling good. The basket felt a little extended. I like getting mid-rangers, seeing what the defense is giving me and taking opportunities from there.” Meanwhile, Brodhead’s defense looked like a new team, completely shutting down Marshall’s offense for eight and a half straight minutes in the first half by crashing the boards, forcing turnovers and giving the offense chances.
Brodhead came out of halftime with a 31-28 lead, and the two teams played tight for a good chunk of the second half.
But a 14-3 run from Marshall put Brodhead in a 52-45 deficit with about eight minutes left.
Brodhead’s shots started to fall again, but the defense had trouble defending around the basket down the stretch.
“They killed us in the post,” Meier said. “But then they started to isolate the post, and we really didn’t have an answer for it.
Walker finished with 32 points while going 5-of-5 from the stripe.
“He’s smooth,” Meier said with a chuckle. “He knocks things down, and can get to the rim. He facilitates things around there. He’s only going to get better. He’s only a sophomore.”
