Brose scores 24 as Hempfield boys top Greensburg C.C.

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, December 30, 2017 | 12:13 AM

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Hempfield did not press Greensburg Central Catholic much on Friday night. It didn’t need to.

Having 6-foot-4 swing-forward Braden Brose scoring inside and out can put enough pressure on any opponent.

Brose scored nine of his game-high 24 points in the third quarter when the Spartans seized control and finally pulled away from the bothersome Centurions for a 61-44 win in the Greensburg Salem Holiday Classic.

Brose scored on a number of slashes to the rim, and showed nice outside touch.

“We were amped up in the third quarter,” Brose said. “We had to keep grinding. We were disappointed how we played (Thursday) against Laurel Highlands, but we were ready for GCC.”

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Hempfield (4-6), which lost to Laurel Highlands, 62-52, in the showcase opener, outscored GCC (1-9), 21-11, in the third. That, after the Centurions played right with the Spartans for the better part of 20 minutes.

After GCC missed a layup with about 5 minutes, 30 seconds to go in the third, Reed Hipps connected on a 3-pointer, Brose followed from deep, and all of the sudden, a four-point halftime lead for Hempfield swelled to 14 (41-27).

Geoff Helm, who finished with 14 points for GCC — nine of his team’s 11 in the third — hit a pair of driving layups to trim it to 43-34, but Hempfield went on an 11-0 run before GCC scored again.

The pull-away surge totaled 24-13 and ended with Hempfield sitting its starters with 3:06 left in the fourth, ahead 57-38.

Joel LoNigro led GCC with 17 points, 12 in the first half.

Justin Sliwoski scored 10 of his 14 points in the second quarter for Hempfield. Hipps added 10, including a pair of 3-pointers.

Hempfield recently posted wins over Plum and Greensburg Salem, and nearly knocked off 6A No. 3 Woodland Hills.

“It’s hard to match their physicality, and we don’t have a lot of depth,” GCC coach Jim Nesser said. “I am proud of our guys and how they fought. For the first time all season, we gave 32 minutes of fight.”

GCC now has nine losses. It lost a total of nine games the last three years combined.

“They play hard, we knew they would,” Hempfield coach Bill Swan said. “They are not terrible, and they had nothing to lose.”

Little separated the teams in the first half, where the lead didn’t get above six and both teams held control for spurts.

Hempfield took a 15-10 lead after one quarter, but GCC regained the lead at 21-19 on a jumper by Ethan Slike.

Hempfield took back momentum as Sliwoski scored on consecutive possessions and Hipps made a soft jumper to make it 25-21.

Sliwoski added a buzzer-beating floater in the lane to give the Spartans a 27-23 edge at halftime.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at bbeckner@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BillBeckner.

Tags: Greensburg C.C., Hempfield Area