Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Brookfield junior Isaiah Jones hauls in a rebound during the first half Thursday evening against Southeast. He tallied 11 points in a 56-38 loss to the Pirates.
BROOKFIELD — Some evenings, it just isn’t your night. When a team finds itself shorthanded, any sort of lag offensively will be even more apparent than normal.
A mix of emotions and poor shooting led to Brookfield being shut out for nearly the first nine minutes of the second half, ultimately falling to Southeast at home, 56-38.
That was after the Warriors only trailed 27-26 heading into the locker room at halftime, but a bench-clearing altercation following a hard foul early in the second quarter led to the ejection of two players from each team, David and Donovan Pawlowski from Brookfield, along with Caden Bailey and Ty Sprutte from Southeast left both teams short-handed, but the Warriors had to maneuver the rest of the contest without two of their best scorers.
“We lost two starters, and everything just went south, we couldn’t recover from it, had some guys playing out of position, it’s just one of them things,” Warriors coach Shawn Hammond said. “You never saw that coming, and we lose two-thirds of our points. They left the floor, and it was going to be hard to make it up.
“You try to battle through it. Guys are going to be out of position, and we didn’t accept it. Tonight we never recovered from it. We let our emotions get us in the second half, and then the game got too much for us.”
Brookfield (3-4) did lead early, with junior Isaiah Jones and Donovan Pawlowski each scoring off of blocks defensively, leading 12-6 following an 8-0 run midway through the first. The contest eventually was tied 15 points apiece heading into the second frame.
At the 6:41 mark, the aforementioned altercation occurred, with the game being paused for a short period of time as game officials discussed fouls and other details, with Southeast coming out to shoot technical free throws during the fallout.
The Warriors once again led 24-19 following a three off the fingers of senior TJ Laverty that banked off the glass into the bucket, but the quick 7-0 Southeast (5-4) run helped guide the Pirates to a 27-26 edge going into halftime after Jones made another shot.
Brookfield didn’t score again until the 7:05 mark in the fourth as Laverty drove in and scored, but the damage was already done, Southeast outscoring the Warriors 17-0, and 29-10 for the whole second half.
Flushing a bad showing from the collective memory of a team is generally desired, with the long grind of a basketball season giving teams opportunity to regain focus.
“It’s a non-league game, so hopefully our guys can (move on), we can bounce back with them,” Hammond said. “You just hope that they can put it aside and go, but it’s just one of those games.”
Jones and Laverty shared the team-high in scoring for Brookfield with 11. Game-high honors went to Southeast’s Aiden Fisher with 14 points, and Garrett Sprutte, who had 12.