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WELLSBURG -- It was a battle of opposites as the slow and deliberate Mount Lebanon Blue Devils defeated the fast and loose Brooke Bruins in the finals of the Brooke Holiday Tournament Thursday night.
Mount Lebanon generated just enough scoring from their pass-heavy, 3-point-shooting offense as they claimed the trophy with a 48-39 triumph.
"We gave maximum effort," said Brooke coach Adam Shinsky. "Even though it was a loss, that was probably our best performance of the season."
The host Bruins (4-3) leaned on their dynamic duo of seniors Alex Insinghood and Cole Sperlazza, who combined for 29 of the team's 39 points. Shinksky said the team was a little too reliant on Sperlazza and Insinghood, especially in the first half where they scored all but three of Brooke's points.
"Our problem was, we passed up way too many shots," Shinsky said. "We were looking for Cole and Alex way too much and we had a couple guys pass up shots."
Back-to-back buckets by Insinghood and Sperlazza to close the first half capped off a 10-3 Brooke run that made the halftime score just 24-21 in favor of the visitors.
Mount Lebanon generated 34 shots in the first half, compared to Brooke's 15, however, poor shooting from the Blue Devils and 11 free throws by the Bruins kept the hosts in the game.
Mount Lebanon deployed a full-court press to contain the Bruins' offense and it took almost three full quarters until Brooke finally solved it.
Down by 10, 37-27, Brooke abused Mount Lebanon's press to generate several quick baskets in a row, piecing together a 9-2 run to make the score 39-36. A 3-pointer from Insinghood capped the scoring outburst and knotted the game up at 39.
"We like when teams press us," Shinsky said. "We figured it out and started to get layups off of it and actually tied the game up off of the press. So, then they got out of it quick and we struggled when they got into a half-court defensive set."
That trey from Insinghood may have tied the game but it was also Brooke's final score. Mount Lebanon used its final meaningful possessions to drain several minutes off the clock until Brooke was forced to foul, to no avail. All told, the Blue Devils scored the final nine points of the contest.
"That's a powerhouse team and I'm glad we played them because it's going to get us ready," Shinsky said. "If we want to hang with the big boys like Wheeling Park and Morgantown in the sectional, teams like (Mount Lebanon) will test us and get us ready for that."
Insinghood (15) and Sperlazza (14) led the Bruins in scoring with Ryan Knox (six) being the only other player to add in more than two points.
Big man Joey Peters led Mount Lebanon with 14 points , backed up by 11 from Christian Powers, nine from Zach D'Alesandro and eight by Christian Mallon.
Insinghood, Sperlazza, D'Alesandro were all named to the All-Tournament team and Powers was named the tournament MVP, as voted on by the coaches.
"The kids told me this was one of the goals of rebuilding the program," Shinsky said. "This is the first time they've got to play in the finals of this tournament. We're glad we got there but we really wanted to win."
Brooke will have a week off before another test, on the road at Wheeling Park on Friday, Jan. 7.
Mount Lebanon 48, Brooke 39
ML 11 13 11 13 -- 48
Brooke 8 13 11 7 -- 39
ML -- Peters 6 2-3 14; Powers 4 2-3 11; D'Alesandro 3 0-1 9; Mallon 4 0-1 8; Pfeuffer 2 0-0 6; Garofoli 0 0-0 0; Walters 0 0-0 0; Donati 0 0-0 0; King 0 0-0 0.
BROOKE -- Insinghood 6 2-2 15; Sperlazza 3 8-9 14; Knox 2 1-2 6; Taylor 1 0-0 2; Varner 1 0-0 2; Marks 0 0-0 0; Orban 0 0-0 0; Sperringer 0 0-0 0.
3 Pt. Goals -- Mount Lebanon 6 (D'Alesandro 3, Pfeuffer 2, Powers 1). Brooke 2 (Insinghood 1, Knox 1).