Sports

Roswell Boys Also Defeat Berkmar in Round One

Roswell High School Boys basketball team coach Ty Phillips takes home the win in the game against his brother, Greg Phillips' team. Roswell will advance to play in second round.

The pregame setup may have focused on dueling brother coaches — Roswell’s Ty Phillips and Berkmar’s Greg Phillips — but it was a sophomore who made the biggest impact in Roswell’s 57-56 win Saturday in the first round of the Class AAAAA boys basketball tournament.

Sean Brennan’s state-tournament debut was spectacular. He scored 30 points as the Hornets (14-15) beat the Region 8-AAAAA-champion Patriots on their home floor in an emotionally charged game that included four technical fouls.

Brennan made most of the big shots for Roswell, including eight straight free throws in the final two minutes, as the Hornets had to hang on to beat the explosive Patriots (20-9) after nearly blowing a 13-point fourth-quarter lead. Brennan made 12-of-12 free throws for the game.

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“He’s just a sophomore and he was the best player in the gym tonight, no question about it,” said Ty Phillips.

Berkmar’s Brandon Thompson was pretty good, too. The guard led a Patriots charge that turned a 41-28 deficit at the 6:46 mark of the fourth quarter into a single possession game three minutes later. Thompson finished with 19 points. Twelve of those points came after Roswell had taken the 13-point lead.

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“You can’t dig yourself a big hole like that against a good team. Not in the state tournament,” Greg Philips said. “We dug ourselves a hole that we couldn’t get out of.”

The Patriots almost did come all the way back.  But Roswell found a way to stay in front every time Berkmar pulled close.

Thompson’s rebound basket with 2:46 left made it 45-43, then his free throw cut the lead to 45-44 with 1:58 left. Roswell increased the lead back to 51-46 less than a minute later on six straight points by Brennan.

But Yonel Brown’s 3-pointer from the top of the key cut the lead to 54-53 with 25.9 seconds left. After Roswell’s Julian Boyd made one of two free throws with 24.5 seconds left, Brown missed a 3-pointer that would have given Berkmar the lead with seven seconds left.

Brennan’s two foul shots with 6.1 seconds left made the score 57-53 and provided the winning points, even though Brown was fouled on a 3-point attempt with one second left. Brown made all three free throws for the final points.

Both coaches downplayed the brother-vs.-brother storyline of the game.

“It’s fun for the families, but for us it’s about the players of both teams,” Greg Phillips said. “Both teams left it all out of the court. Somebody had to lose tonight. Unfortunately it was us.”

 “As much as I wanted to win, I would have been thrilled for Greg [if Berkmar had won],” Ty Phillips said. “I think we both kind of feel that way.”

Taylor Birchett added 12 points for Roswell. Devan Campbell chipped in 10 for Berkmar.

The teams combined 54 free throws for the game, including 33 in the fourth quarter.


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