Howard's Sayyid Muhammed, left, watches as Brainerd's DaV Moore (40) reaches to control a rebound Friday at Brainerd High School.Brainerd High School officials opened the doors to allow cool air inside the packed High-Jackson gym in the fourth quarter of the Panthers' game Friday night against Howard.
Brainerd turned up the heat with its defense in the third quarter, allowing the Panthers to pull away for a 72-53 win over their crosstown rivals.
"It got hot in there," said senior Marques Tipton, who helped the Panthers improve to 4-0 by scoring 10 points.
Freshman Jessie Walker came off the bench to ignite Brainerd's full-court pressure defense. He scored 16 points -- all in the second half.
"Jessie is tough and he can finish around the basket," Brainerd coach Lavar Brown said. "He added some toughness and finished shots that we weren't making in the first half."
The Tigers were led by 16 points from Sayyid Muhammed and 11 points from LaDarius Brown, who buried three 3-point basketbs.
The Panthers turned a 28-27 lead with 3:53 to go in the third quarter into a 49-30 margin by the end of the quarter. Brainerd forced Howard into eight turnovers in that four-minute stretch and forced the Tigers into 21 turnovers for the game. Brainerd had 13 turnovers.
"We played a pretty good third quarter," senior Da'vt Moore said. "We played as a team with defense.
"If we didn't play defense, we would have lost, simple as that."
The game opened with Brainerd winning the tip and senior Moore finishing an alley-oop to ignite a crowd that almost reached standing-room-only status.
The Tigers (3-2) absorbed the blow and stood toe-to-toe with the Panthers through the first two quarters. Howard trailed 23-22 when a dance team took the floor for halftime entertainment.
The score seemed stagnant until Brown inserted Walker into the game and called for the pressing defense.
Then everything turned.
Howard coach Walter McGary used his last timeout as the run began. Walker scored eight straight points, and Tipton added a bucket. Kentrell Evans -- who finished with 13 points -- scored four straight. Then Tipton erupted the home crowd with a fastbreak one-handed jam, and Williams scored again. The Panthers held the Tigers scoreless in 10 of 11 possessions to close out the third quarter -- and essentially close out the game.
"We have two juniors, Dajuonta Ross and Windell Graham, who don't care much about scoring the ball. They want to stop you from scoring," Brown said. "We feed off those guys."
McGary was succinct in his postgame comments.
"My big men quit playing. They didn't do what they were supposed to do," McGary said. "When my big men quit playing, that was it."
The teams played an even fourth quarter and will meet again on Jan. 2 at Howard. It could get hot in that gym, too.
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.