The Chapman Panthers traveled to match up with the Broome Centurions on Friday night in a Region 3-3A game. With the standings jammed tight, wins will be very valuable to come by with just a few weeks left in the season. Behind tightly played defense throughout the contest, Broome pulled out a 51-49 win at home over the Panthers. Here are my five biggest takeaways from the game.
1-Broome has had its fair share of struggles this season coming into the game with an 8-10 record, but the group that took the floor tonight were confident and showed it early in the game. Knowing that it would take a strong defensive effort to hold down a Chapman squad that can light it up offensively when they are on, the Centurions locked down the three-point line.
2-Chapman didn’t hit its first three until halfway through the second quarter, which is ages for a team like the Panthers that will take them early and often. Lance Henderson, Tre Suber, and Demarius Jeter were primarily responsible for guarding the constant three point shooting threats wearing Chapman jerseys.
3-The Centurions withheld a couple of decent Panthers scoring runs, but in the end grabbed the win behind a team-high scoring night from Jeter with 14 points, as well as 10 points scored by Jordan Ramirez. But more than anything, the defensive effort that won’t go down in the box score gave Broome the juice to get this win more than anything.
4-Chapman certainly got hot from the three point line, and I came out of this game even more impressed with Chapman guard Grayden Humphries. He finished with a game-high 22 points, and has elite shot making ability. With a lightning fast release and skill to make long jumpers with both set feet and off-balance, he is one of the best pure scorers in the county.
5-With the win, Broome moves to 2-2 in region play and a 9-10 overall with a non-region game at home against Landrum set for Monday, Woodruff at home on Tuesday and a road trip against Union county on Friday. Chapman is now tied for 5th at 2-3 in the region and 7-13 overall enter a challenging week of two road games against Greer Middle College and MVP.
