Brunswick boasted five players in double figures enabling the Wildcats to overcome another playoff obstacle as they rolled past Kingsville, 73-54 on Friday afternoon in the Class 1 Boys’ state semifinals held in Columbia and heard on KMMO-AM.
Sophomore Drew Jackson paced Brunswick by draining five threes and scoring 17 points with four of his trifectas occurring during the opening half. Tacking on 16 points for the winners was Clay Hayward while Tae Brown added 15. Mustering 10 points each for the Wildcats were Makhien Falls and Balston Brown with all of Brown’s offensive weaponry occurring during the final half.
Another key to Brunswick’s success was their intensity on defense as they forced Kingsville into making 26 turnovers. That flurry of Tiger miscues resulted in the Wildcats scoring 26 points in the aftermath of those ball-handling mistakes. Brunswick started slowly on Friday with Kingsville’s 7-foot senior center John Fleeman tallying five quick points, staking the Johnson County school to an early 7-0 lead. Brunswick then responded with a 9-1 outburst to go on top, 9-8 as they never trailed again. The Wildcats were in front 16-12 after one period and then 37-27 at the break before going on to steadily increase their advantage the rest of the way.
Brunswick was ahead 61-42 entering the final frame and led by more than 20 early in the fourth quarter before settling for their 73-54 victory.
Reaching the Final Four the first time in Kingsville history, the Tigers saw an eight-game winning streak end as they fell to 25-6 on the year. Post player John Fleeman tallied 24 points in a losing cause while Gavin Mullins added 10 of his own.
Meanwhile, Brunswick was making just their second Final Four appearance ever, with their only other one occurring 26 seasons ago. The Wildcats have now won 17 straight and are 28-3 overall going into their state title game at 4 p.m. Saturday which will be heard on KMMO 102.9 FM. That’s when they’ll take on 29-2 Bunker, who was a 64-50 winner over Faith Christian Academy in the other Class 1 semifinal-round skirmish which occurred Friday morning.