BRIGHTON — On most nights, if you keep Eddie Millington and Ashton Tomassi scoreless in the first quarter, one would like one’s chances of victory against the Brighton boys basketball team.
Canton did that on Tuesday, but the Chiefs had no way of knowing, going in, that it was Ben Anderson’s night to shine.
Anderson, a 6-3 forward who is Brighton’s top rebounder, scored eight points in the first quarter, then went 7-for-8 at the free throw line in the fourth quarter to finish with a career-high 17 points and 10 rebounds as Brighton downed Canton 69-50.
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“I usually don’t score that much,” Anderson said. “I leave that to Ashton and Eddie. But I made some open shots and I was getting open.”
Much of that came from his work on the boards, recording seven offensive rebounds.
“Ben is our big guy,” Brighton coach Mike Griest said. “We’re asking him to go up against a 7-footer on Friday and a 6-8 kid from Canton / WE’re asking him to score and rebound, and he does it without missing a beat.”
Tomassi and Millington got going in the second quarter, finishing with 20 and 11 points apiece, and Trevor Viau added 12 for the Bulldogs (11-2 overall, 5-1 KLAA West), who moved into a tie for first with Canton (7-6, 5-1) in the division.
“Ben stepped up for us,” Griest said. “Teams try to take away (Tomassi and Millington), and I would, too. And the way we share the ball, if those two aren’t shooting, someone is going to be open, and we’ll find them.”
The Bulldogs were effective both inside and outside, hitting eight 3-pointers spread out among four players.
Anderson rarely gets too far from the basket, which is fine with him.
“One of my priorities is to attack the glass,” he said. “We (he and fellow post player Jack Storey) have to be as big as possible. We can’t do anything about our height (Anderson is 6-3 and Storey 6-4), but we can play taller.”
Anderson proved that on Tuesday.
