Levar Brown calls the early part of this prep basketball season "a building process."
Having begun it with four new starters and minus seven seniors from a year ago, the Brainerd High School boys' coach knows success will be earned in increments.
The Panthers began their Best of Preps Tournament first-round game against Ooltewah looking like a well-oiled machine Thursday at Chattanooga State, but a huge run by the Owls put Brainerd behind at halftime. Brown's team, though, dominated the final quarter on the way to a 68-56 win and will face Baylor in a semifinal at 5:30 p.m. today.
"It's a game of runs, and we knew they would make one because they are well-coached and they play hard," Brown said of the Owls. "Now, we didn't anticipate them making that big a run and I want to see us do a better job of responding to a run like that."
The Panthers (8-6) had their way early, using full-court pressure to cause 14 first-half turnovers by Ooltewah. Nine came early as Brainerd built a 21-12 lead after one quarter, with LaDarren Freeman scoring eight of his game-high 17 points in that period.
A steal and a layup by Trey Owten pushed the lead to 34-19 midway through the second quarter, but those were the last Brainerd points of the half. Sparked by the return of versatile post Jax Howard, who missed most of the first half after picking up two early fouls, the Owls ended the second quarter on a 12-0 run to get within three.
Howard had seven points during the run, then started the second half with five quick points as Ooltewah jumped ahead 36-34. The game was tied at 46 entering the final period, which is when Brown implored his team to turn up the heat.
"We made a couple of substitutions and we kicked up our level of defensive intensity, and that's just how we have to play," he said. "We are not at the point right now where we can play a half-court game with anybody with us being so small. We want to speed up possessions and hopefully get some layups out of it."
That they did. Malik Hyman started the quarter with a 3-pointer, with Romeo Hubbard following with a steal and a layup. The lead was three after Ooltewah's Greyson Woods drove to the basket and scored, but the Panthers went on a decisive 10-0 run - fueled by 3-pointers from Freeman and Cameron Evans - over the next three minutes.
"I've been in this tournament five years, and we've been in the championship game twice, so I want to win one," Brown said with a smile. "Really, I want us to start playing better. We've got a lot of new kids, so we want to get them acclimated to how we want to play. It's a building process."
Hyman added 14 points and Owten 11 for the Panthers, while Woods led the Owls (8-5) with 16 points, followed by Howard with 13 and Smith with 12.
Ooltewah takes on Signal Mountain in today's first boys' consolation game at 11:30 a.m.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.