McBride's buzzer-beater keys win over Chargers

Brookfield East junior guard Ryan McBride has made some big plays for the Spartans the past two years, but perhaps none was bigger than the play he made Tuesday night at Sussex Hamilton.

With the Spartans trailing, 47-46, and six seconds remaining in the game, East coach Andy Farley instructed his team to put the ball in the hands of his point guard.

"The plan was to put the ball in Ryan's hands," Farley said. "We told him to be aggressive, step up and attack the lane. He went all the way to the basket. He was really aggressive."

McBride took the inbounds pass around the 3-point line, then took the basket to the hoop and scored the game-winner as time ran out.

"He made a great move to hit the shot with about two-seconds left to play," Farley said. "He really had some nice execution."

Although only a junior, McBride has been getting noticed.

"Absolutely," Farley said. "Other coaches watch us all the time and he is always getting noticed right away. Brian Rusk, the former Wauwatosa West coach, watched practice the other day and commented on what a fundamentally sound player he is."

The first two quarters of the game were complete opposites of each other.

Hamilton came out and doubled up the Spartans in the first period, outscoring them 16-8.

"We came out a little flat tonight," Farley said. "That has sometimes defined our season. But we battled back."

But then the Spartans turned up the heat, out-scored the Chargers, 18-7, and took a 28-23 lead into intermission.

Hamilton then out-scored the Spartans, 11-8, to cut the East lead to 36-34 going into the final period, but East won the fourth period, 14-13.

Farley also had special praise for junior guard Nick Kanavas down the stretch.

"With under two minutes left to play, Nick Kanavas hit a shot which put us up by four," Farley said. "We made some good plays at the end. Good team plays."

Junior guard Brian Smith, who struggled over the weekend, got back into the scoring groove, leading the Spartans with 12 points. McBride added nine points and 6-foot, 6-inch Jonathan McGinley added seven points.

Kanavas and Billy Dietz had six points each, Mikey Novak had five and Mike Eberle added three. The Chargers star sophomore Brady Ellingson led all scorers with 24 points.

Spartans girls

The girls basketball team (0-2, 2-4) struggled all night against the Sussex Hamilton girls (2-0, 4-0), as they dropped a 49-24 decision at Brookfield East.

The Chargers put the game away quickly, taking a 33-10 lead into halftime and expanded it to 35-14 through three periods. East scored six, four and four points the first three quarters before managing 10 points against the Chargers in the fourth quarter.

East coach Kelly Lam had five players score between two and seven points.

Lauren Kennedy led the way with seven points, while Kellie Goodman, Christy Johnson and Alyssa Carter each scored five. Hanna Zimmermann had two points to round out the scoring.

Hamilton was led by star player Mackenzie Latt, who managed 16 points while Lauren Krohn added 10.

Up next

The boys will now host West Allis Hale (0-3, 1-3) on Friday, while the girls will travel to Hale (0-2, 0-4).