Whenever Brandon was in doubt the Bulldogs found Braylon Barnes or Nate White.
Behind the play of both Barnes and White, the Bulldogs were able to hold off Petal 57-52 in their Region 3-7A opener on Tuesday night.
“Got off to a slow start, Braylon was coming off the flu, so he hadn’t practiced in a couple days, and early in the game we were forcing shots, but he finally got into the rhythm of game and made some big shots for us down the stretch,” said Brandon coach Fred Barnes. “Nate White kept us in the game for a while and was big on the boards.”
Petal held a slim 10-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Midway through the second quarter the Bulldogs went on a 14-0 run to take a 24-14 lead and ended the first half on a 16-5 run to take a 26-19 lead at halftime. White scored 11 of his 15 points in the first half.
Beginning of the third quarter the Panthers went on a 10-2 run to take a 29-28 lead with 4:07 remaining. From that point each team kept trading baskets that saw Brandon holding a 40-37 lead at the end of the frame.
“Couldn’t be prouder of the boys they played extremely hard and Long played well on limited minutes and we did a good job of getting him the ball,” Petal coach Brandon Jennings said. “Defensively we played our butts off with being undersized and couldn’t have asked for more from the guys.”
The Bulldogs went on a 9-0 run to begin the fourth quarter to stretch their lead out to 49-37. Petal went on a quick 8-2 run to cut the Bulldog lead to 51-45, but Barnes scored six of the Bulldogs final eight points to seal the win.
Barnes finished with 15 points for Brandon (7-5, 1-0 Region 3-7A).
“We were getting stops in spurts on defense and we go up 8-10 points and just let them back in the game,” Barnes said. “This team is lacking that killer instinct that this team is lacking right now because we’re new. Everyone on this team is either new or has a new role and some of our guys have to adjust. Big thing right now is we’re 1-0 in district.”
Ethan Long had a game-high 22 points to lead Petal, while Peyton Lindley added 10 points for the Panthers (5-8, 0-1).
Follow @PineBeltSPORTS on Twitter and Facebook.
