By Neil Geoghegan
ngeoghegan@21st-centurymedia.com
@NeilMGeoghegan on Twitter
KENNETT SQUARE >> Just four days earlier, Unionville’s Ryan Brown suffered through one of the most disappointing games of his basketball career against Oxford. The senior guard scored just three points, didn’t play a lot and was in the coach’s doghouse afterwards.
And then Monday Brown drained a half-dozen 3-pointers and poured in a career-high 36 points to help the Longhorns overpower host Kennett 76-54 in a Ches-Mont American clash.
“You cannot do very much for your team one day, and it can all change,” Brown said. “The biggest thing for me was come prepared for every game. Last game, I think I took Oxford a little lightly and it showed on the court.”
Clearly locked in from the start of this one at Reynolds Gymnasium, Brown was dangerous early from with his silky-smooth perimeter game, and then the back-cut became a big-time weapon. What happened to him in the span of four days is why, in a nutshell, it is so difficult to defend Unionville: head coach Chris Cowles has a starting five where any one of five could go off the way Brown did Monday.
“I think Ryan learned that if he stays in the moment and concentrates on doing his job, he is going to have success,” Cowles said. “We have other good players who are unselfish – (point guard James Anderson) does a great job of getting the ball up court – so everybody is (benefiting).
“The key is when we are getting stops defensively.”
Now 12-2 overall, the ’Horns sit atop the District 1 5A Power Rankings. And Unionville also moves to 4-0 in the division, and has outscored those opponents by a combined 99 points.
“If we come out ready to play, we can beat some of these (Ches-Mont) teams handily. The biggest thing is to just stay together and stay locked in on defense,” Brown said.
Kennett entered the clash having won three in a row but fall to 2-3, 5-8 overall. The setback overshadowed another outstanding individual effort: junior forward Conner Schumacher paced the Blue Demons with a career-high 35 points.
“(Unionville) is very good,” added Kennett head coach Ryan Dunbar. “They’ve got to be one of the better teams in the district regardless of classification. They have four or five guys who can give you 20 points a night, so you can’t just key on one guy.
“They share the ball and they know who to get it to. And they don’t take bad shots.”
Brown had a monster first half, scoring 19 points before a hard foul knocked him from the game in the final minute of the second quarter.
“I took a knee to the head. But I’m alright,” he said.
He sparked an early 10-0 run with a 3-pointer and a 3-point play to put Unionville ahead 16-11 after eight minutes. Brown then had a 4-point play to spearhead the Longhorns, who scored 16 of the first 19 of the period to open a 32-14 lead.
The Demons pushed back to make it 36-25 at the half thanks to Schumacher’s 14 first half points.
“When adversity hits, we talk about embracing the discomfort – we desire that,” Cowles said. “Being uncomfortable is fun.
“Kennett is very much improved. They’ve won a bunch of games and the games they’ve lost have been very close. So we knew it was going to be a battle coming in.”
In the early going of the second half, Kennett sliced the margin to nine. But after a timeout, Unionville went on a 15-4 run that included two more 3-pointers by Brown. And even though Charlie Kammeier, James Brenner and Nick Diehl each had foul trouble, the ’Horns cruised the rest of the way.
“The runs (Kennett) made was because we weren’t playing good defense. And when we did, that was when we would make our own runs,” Brown said.
“It could have got out of hand in the first half, but we answered well,” Dunbar added. “We got it down to nine and then the next time I looked up at the scoreboard, it was 20. They just kicked it up a notch.
“But we shouldn’t be ashamed of anything that happened tonight. Unionville is good. I couldn’t be prouder of how we fought.”
Brown would up scoring nine more points than ever before. Anderson added 13 points and Diehl chipped in 11 for Unionville.
“We were executing (offensively) at a higher level tonight than we have been, so that was good to see,” Cowles said.
“We shoot the 3-ball well as a team, so that’s tough to guard in general,” Brown added. “And we have a lot of different pieces where we can do a lot of different things.
“I work on my shot all the time, but today it felt especially good. And because I made some shots, it was getting me some back-door looks.”
The 6-foot-6 Schumacher wound up accounting for 12 of the Demons’ 18 field goals, and downed 11 of 13 from the free throw line. Nobody else on the roster, however, managed to score more than five.
“I think Conner grew up a little tonight,” Dunbar said. “And he did it against a well-coached team that tried to take him out of the game. He played phenomenal, so I can’t wait to see what the rest of the season looks like for him.”
The Longhorns wound up forcing 14 Kennett turnovers, but afterwards Cowles was unimpressed with his team’s overall defense – especially against Shoemacher.
“We need to get better defensively,” he said. “Our major concern is kind of what we’ve had all season, which is a lack of execution. When that happens, (opposing) players are going to torch you. That’s what happened tonight.”
Unionville 76, Kennett 54
UNIONVILLE – Anderson 6 0-1 13; Brown 13 3-6 36; Kammeier 1 0-0 2; Brenner 2 1-2 7; Robbins 2 1-2 5; Diehl 5 1-1 11; Levendis 1 0-0 2; Hyman 0 0-2 0. Totals 30 6-14 76 6-14 76.
KENNETT –Talbert 2 0-0 5; Halokos 2 0-0 5; Freebery 1 0-0 3; Lower 0 3-4 3; Heavens 1 0-0 3; Schumacher 12 11-13 35; Higar 0 0-2. Totals 18 14-19 54.
Unionville 16 20 23 17 — 76
Kennett 11 14 12 17 – 54.
3-pointers: Anderson 2, Brown 6, Brenner 2, Talbert, Halokos, Freebery, Heavens.
