Brewer freshman forward, Oli Higgins is 6′ 7″ tall and weighs 160 pounds and upon sight looks like he could be blown over by a stiff breeze and has to run around in the shower to get wet, Well.., those two things may be so but the kid has some serious game and he brought it with him to the Augusta Civic Center on Saturday. Higgins led the Witches and all scorers with 22 points and Brewer needed every single one of them as they held off the Mt. Blue Cougars by a final of 61-60.
Higgins was not the least bit intimidated by his first tourney appearance and it showed. And, it wasn’t just his offense that was impressive, his defense and his defensive rebounding which his coach, Carl Parker says is the best on the team.., was very obvious. He protects the rim and also causes shots to be altered or not taken at all. But, he couldn’t and didn’t do it alone. Teammate Charlie Brydges (who like Higgins played all 32 minutes) had 14 points and 3 big 3 pointers including a 3 with 35 seconds left n the 3rd quarter that gave Brewer the lead for good. And the 3rd quarter was the deciding quarter in this ballgame as Brewer outscored Mt. Blue, 18-9 and led 47-41 after 3.
The Witches led 55-49 with just over 3 minutes go but that lead did not last.., almost. Mt. Blue Coach Troy Norton changed his defense to a full court press and then got 3’s from Tyler Abell and Nolan Leso and suddenly the Brewer lead was down to 1, 56-55. But a Steven Youngs steal and dunk sealed the deal although Mt. Blue’s Troy Norton scored 5 points scored 5 points after that including a buzzer beater but it was not enough as Brewer earned a hard fought 61-60 triumph. Tyler Abell led Mt. Blue with 21, Nolan Leso had 14 and Carter Norton finished with 12.
Next up for Brewer is a 3rd match up of the season against the Hampden Academy Broncos.., who have beaten the Witches in both prior meetings. It’s awfully hard to beat a good team 3 times in a season so we shall see if the Witches can make that old sport saying meaningless.
