HOME Subscribe Today!
SEARCH: Go



Sports

PUBLISHED: Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Green Devils move closer to GTC East hoops title

4th quarter surge does in Ubly


UBLY – Anybody else in the GTC East that had any hopes of getting back into boys hoops title chase can just forget it. The Brown City Green Devils made sure of it Friday night.

Advertisement

As they have done all season long, the Devils found a way to fight off opposing teams' best efforts. They trailed early, clawed back and then pulled away in the final quarter in their 60-52 victory at Ubly. BC now stands atop of the division at 7-0, enjoying a three-game lead over Ubly, Marlette and Harbor Beach. The Bearcats, coming into the contest, had had chance to pull within a game of the Devils in the East standings, but instead slipped to 4-3.

Brown City coach Tony Burton, who worries about every upcoming game, knows his team has a comfortable lead in pursuit of a second straight division championship, but there is more to it.

"We've got to continue to get better. You look back at past history – after we clinched the league last year, we flattened right out," said Burton, whose Devils were bounced out of the Districts in the second round last winter. "We've got a lot of things to learn yet."

BC, now 12-1 overall, trailed 14-11 in the opening quarter Friday night only to knot the game at 27-27 by halftime. Still tied at 44-44, going into the last eight minutes, the Devils put together an 11-0 scoring run to secure the victory.

Burton, no question, was pleased with the road victory. He commented, "They've got a good team, they're well-coached and it's a good program up there. This was a good ball game. Fortunately, for us, we played our best quarter in the fourth quarter."

Junior Jack McPhail and senior Donovan Ogboh provided the offensive spark in the final eight minutes with eight and five points, respectively. McPhail finished with 15 points and added eight rebounds and five assists. Ogboh and junior guard A. J. Burton each scored 14 points.

Coach Burton also noted the play of two reserves. "We got a lift off the bench from Ryan Groat, defensively, and Josh Moffitt, offensively." Moffitt, a sophomore, scored all five of his points and had four rebounds in the second quarter.

Guard Jeremy Kubacki topped Ubly in scoring with 17 points.

The Green Devils are at Bad Axe (3-9) tonight in a GTC crossover contest and at home versus Deckerville (1-6, 2-9) in division play this Friday evening.

Brown City 70 Marlette 44

A 20-8 scoring binge in the second quarter led the Devils to their sixth straight GTC East win Wednesday night. BC, which led 37-18 at halftime, sank eight three-pointers in the game, including four from A. J. Burton, who finished with 16 points. Ogboh led the scoring with 17 and Jon Muxlow had 16. McPhail chipped in with nine points and also dished out nine assists. The Devils, with nine rebounds from Ogboh, won the battle under the boards, 27-11.

Marlette was led by David Bliss with 16 points. Austin Comment added nine points and six assists.





TOP JOBS

TOP AUTOS

TOP HOMES

TOP RENTALS

TOP MERCHANDISE

Not all stories are guaranteed to appear online.
The Web edition contains a reasonable sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to subscribe to the print edition of the paper.