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Bruins Celebrate Lee West Against Steubenville

Photo Credit: Ali Crawford

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Written by Joshua Yost, Sports Journalist

The Bruins fought hard in a game dedicated to the life of Lee West and to the seniors on the night of their final home game. Lee West was a freshman at Steubenville High School and died in a fire on January 31. He is sorely missed, and in the game with Steubenville and for the days leading up to the game, the Bruins basketball team and swim team attempted to raise money for the family of West. The game itself was an incredible battle, filled with emotion, and led down to the final moments where Steubenville finished with a 60-56 victory.

The Bruins, once again on a long losing streak, will find themselves going into the OVAC tournament at Buckeye Local on Tuesday with a chip on their shoulders after a long season of great memories and epic heartbreak. Against Steubenville the team rallied well, and with senior Nick Breen leading the charge, nearly snatched away a victory. Breen finished the game as Brooke’s scoring leader with 15 points; however in the final thirty seconds of the affair fouled out with his fifth being a call by coach Dave Reitter to stop the onslaught.

Breen was both the emotional and the physical leader of the Bruins, not only notching the majority of points but also leading the team with six rebounds and adding in an assist and two steals. The Bruins had two other players finish in double digits in scoring, sophomore Russell Schwertfeger and junior Hunter Wallace, with 14 and 11 points respectively. Schwertfeger led the offensive charge by notching six assists, and on defense was a force against John Linn and Periogn West, the two scoring guards of Big Red. Wallace’s play finished by giving the Bruins a boost with four rebounds and two assists, while also somewhat uncharacteristically only having one turnover.

Common star Eric Johnson finished with eight points, four rebounds, one assist, and a team-leading four steals in the game. The Bruins biggest struggles came with giving up 15 total turnovers while also only making 13 out of 23 foul shots. Big Red had a much more evened team scoring with William Houst leading the team scoring 16 points, eight of which came in the fourth quarter. Houst turned it on down the stretch, getting six of his seven rebounds in the fourth quarter.

Big Red’s secondary scorers were Malik Richmond with 14 points and Gio Garcia with 10. Richmond was also second on the team in rebounds with five, steals with three, and added one assist, however all five of his rebounds came in the first quarter alone. Garcia also led the team in steals with four. Another team leader was Periogn West, who had five points but led the team with six assists.

The teams managed an incredible contest, where the seniors of the Bruins were honored before the game in a ceremony with their families. The seniors this season are Nick Breen, Brian Gialluco, and Vinny Pizzuti, each having been leaders in their own way this season. The Bruins will visit Buckeye Local on Valentine’s Day for the OVAC tournament.