Brewster's Nate Burgher (32)
runs in to hug teammate Austin Benson (20) as Brodie McCormack
(22) and the rest of the team celebrate a 56-47 win over Toledo
in the championship game of the Class 1A boys basketball
tournament Saturday.
Austin Benson thrust a fist up after scoring his first basket in the
opening four minutes, a 15-footer from the top of the key — and a lot of
people in the SunDome probably thought that was just a foreshadowing:
Certainly Brewster, the team playing in its fifth straight championship game, would easily
add to its glittery pedigree with a scoring barrage against those
interlopers playing under the Saturday night lights for the first time.
Well, the Bears got their Class 1A championship, all right — the
school’s eighth boys title overall — but not before earning a healthy
respect for Toledo, which hung within a basket until the final 2 1/2
minutes before succumbing, 56-47.
“They’re a great team — they’re physical, they’re fast, they match up
with us very well,” said Benson, who hit two critical 3-pointers in the
final 10 minutes and then closed out the victory by sinking five of six
free throws in the final 1:15.
“They gave us a great game, on a great night — great crowd, great
atmosphere.”
And there was some other greatness to be celebrated, too: the Bears’
surprising run through an unbeaten 29-game season. After graduating the
1A player of the year last year, Michael Taylor — son of Brewster coach
Tim Taylor — the Bears got it done with gritty defense and players who
knew their roles.
On Saturday, 6-foot-4 center Rocky Gipson knew his role was to get open
underneath.
“I had to step up,” said Gipson, who hit all nine of his
first-half shot attempts and finished with 22 points. “We weren’t
hitting our outside shots, so we had to go inside.”
The Indians (23-4), meanwhile, were hitting shots from all over.
Sensational all-tournament guard Ryan Votaw was “held” to 18 points,
early by Clay Gebbers and late by younger brother Wade Gebbers.
“He’s unbelievable,” Clay Gebbers said of Votaw, who also had six
rebounds, three assists and two steals. “He can shoot from outside,
score from inside, he’s strong. I got in early foul trouble (guarding
Votaw), and my brother really stepped up — I couldn’t have done it
better.”
After a couple of Wade Gebbers layups, two baskets by Gipson and a
Benson 3-pointer helped Brewster up a one-point lead to 47-41 with 2:33
remaining, Toledo’s Talon Rakoz swished a pair of long 3-pointers — the
second pulling the Indians to within 49-47.
But Benson began hitting
free throws, and the Bears had another title — their third during a
record-setting five-year string of state-title appearances.
“This team’s just been so resilient all year,” Tim Taylor said. “We
played a fired-up Toledo team — they came to play.”
But Brewster came to do what it has done eight times now, three of those
in the 1A ranks.
