Brown Deer boys slam More, eye division lead

Opportunity is knocking for the Brown Deer boys basketball team.

Fresh off back-to-back wins over Wauwatosa West and Greendale last week, the Falcons sit just a game off the lead in the Woodland Conference Blue Division.

If they took care of business against St. Thomas More (3-4, 5-6) on Tuesday, they will likely be staring down a home showdown for a share of the divisional lead against New Berlin West (7-1, 7-4) on Jan. 21.

"We made a short-term goal of being 3-0 (in the new year) heading into the West game, so we're not going to look past More, because they always give us trouble," said Brown Deer co-coach Andy Bauschelt.

The Falcons entered that More game at 6-2 in league play and 8-4 overall.

They got that to that point with the two functional wins last week. In the 68-39 decision over Greendale on Friday, Brown Deer overcame a sluggish start (11-8 deficit) and then took control for good with an 18-5 burst in the second quarter.

It was 41-27 at the end of three quarters.

Jamon Jackson-Wilson led the way for Brown Deer with 14 points while Kierre Ogbonna had 13, Keone Moore 12 and Jake Schimenz and Joziah Mallett nine apiece.

"We got a 'W' here, that's all that counts," said Bauschelt. "We underestimated Greendale a little in the first half and it wasn't pretty, but we got them to turn the ball over in the second half and we played with a lot more energy.

"We were able to do a lot of good things with our secondary break."

Against Tosa West, the Falcons were able to outscore the Trojans in every corner and eased away with the 68-55 win Jan. 4. The margin went up from three to five to nine through the first three quarters.

Again the Falcons had great balance, as Jackson-Wilson had 16 points, Mallett tallied 13 and Moore and Trayvon Palmer 12 apiece.

Brown Deer was 23 of 36 from the foul line led by Moore's eight of eight effort.

"It was a pretty good win," said Bauschelt. "We withstood a run by them right at the end where they got it down to three. We were able to bump it back up to 13 and didn't go into the dumper when they pushed.

"I think we showed some growth here."