Walker takes over
Senior captain helps Brookfield blow past Kolbe
BROOKFIELD — Brookfield senior David Walker helped set up his teammates through three quarters under heavy pressure by faceguarding defenders, then completely took over the fourth.
The Bobcats shook off back-toback losses to blow past Kolbe Cathedral late, coming away with a 57-44 win Tuesday night. Walker scored nine of his 15 points in the final eight minutes, including a triple in the corner to make it 45-38 with 3:20 to play.
“David is a very good foul shooter so we want the ball in his hands anyway when we get into the bonus situations,” said Bobcats coach John Flemming. “He’s a senior, he’s a captain, so he knows this is his last hurrah. He wants to take over when he can.”
Kolbe led 14-6 after the first quarter before Brookfield (7-2) took charge. A 3pointer by Brian Rawlings gave the Bobcats a 23-20 lead; they wouldn’t trail again.
Brookfield went 40 games between consecutive losses before falling to Barlow and New Milford last week.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve done that so it’s good that we could bounce back,” Fleming said. “The SWC is very tough this year; it’s going to go back and forth. We hit a bump in the road and we’ve come back from it.”
The Cougars tied the game at 34 as the third-quarter horn sounded. Evan Coleman hit a shot near the half-court line to give the visitors a temporary jolt, but Brookfield went on a 13-4 run in the middle of the period to pull away.
“We rebounded a lot more,” Walker said. “They have a good big guy or two but credit to our big guys, they did a phenomenal job of rebounding.”
PLAYER OF THE GAME
David Walker, Brookfield: Hit a buzzer-beating layup to beat Immaculate over the holiday period, and came up big in the fourth quarter again.
QUOTABLE
“We have a lot of chemistry,” Walker said. “There are six seniors and we’ve been playing a bunch of
years. We had a little experience coming into the year but it’s starting to show and we’re clicking too.” BROOKFIELD 57,
KOLBE CATHEDRAL 44
KOLBE (3-7)
Ty Staples-Santos 1 0-0 2 Jaden Mclellan 1 1-3
3 Evan Coleman 1 0-0 3 Brandon Gadsden 2
0-0 4 Quinton Sneed Lott 6 3-6 15 Taeshaun Sanchez 4 0-0 9 Justin Leigh 1 0-0 2 Jalen Sullivan 1 0-0 2 Eudell Mason 2 0-0 4. Totals:
19 4-9 44.
BROOKFIELD (7-2)
Steven Cioffi 3 0-0 9 David Walker 6 2-4 15 Joe Brown 4 0-0 8 Gavin Borges 2 6-6 10 Billy Oldham 1 2-2 5 Harry Albanese 2 1-4 5 Brian Rawlings 1 2-2 5. Totals: 19 13-18 57.
KOLBE .................................. 14 7 13 10 — 44 BROOKFIELD ........................ 6 19 9 23— 57
3-pointers: K—Coleman, Sanchez; B—Walker, Oldham, Cioffi 3, Rawlings.