On Thursday, November 29th, I went to observe the Brophy Prep Broncos vs the Horizon Huskies at Horizon’s house.
6-foot-4 senior forward Sean Deacon got the tall task of guarding skilled 6-foot-9 senior post Tim Kempton (Lehigh University signee). Kempton took advantage of his height and made 9 quick points to start the game, but 6-foot sophomore PG Brandon Burke hit two 3-pointers and 6-foot-3 senior forward Jordan Esser came in off the bench to score 4 quick points to tie the game at 16 after 1 quarter.
The second quarter began and it was a back-and-forth battle with 6-foot sophomore guard Abraham Sesay sparking the Huskies with 5 quick points, and then three 3-pointers in the quarter by 5-foot-10 junior SG Christian Coraggio.
For Brophy, Kempton paced them with 15 points and 8 rebounds in the first half. Horizon had a narrow 32 to 30 lead at halftime.
The 3rd period started with 2 quick steals by Brophy Prep, with 6-foot-2 sophomore SG Max Kufel being the beneficiary with 4-points to take a 34-32 lead.
Then Horizon started lighting up the scoreboard with 3-straight 3-pointers and Jordan Esser, once again, coming off the bench to give them huge energy with blocks, steals, rebounds and running tip-ins. Horizon took a 52 to 43 lead.
Brophy struggled with point blank shots inside the paint and looked out of rhythm, especially with Kempton taking a breather. Kempton checked in for the fourth quarter and made 6-straight points to cut the lead to 54 to 49. But, Sean Deacon hit 2 shots in a row for a 59 to 49 game. Then 6-foot-3 senior forward Austin West hit a hook shot over Kempton and Esser came over to block his 4th block of the game on a shooter - giving all the momentum to Horizon.
The Broncos went back to the well a few more times with Kempton, scoring another 7 points; but another huge 3-point shot by Coraggio for his 6th of the game, and then 2 quick steals by 6-foot-4 senior forward Thomas Kennedy for 4 points and Brophy looked to start making poor mistakes - trying to “catch up.”
Horizon went up 66 to 56 with 3 minutes left and with everyone on Horizon gaining amazing confidence.
Kempton hit one free-throw - giving himself 31 points and 13 rebounds, but the Broncos' other key players did not play well to help him out unfortunately. Kempton scored a few more baskets at the end of the game, but it was not enough as a huge upset took place with Horizon beating Brophy Prep 79 to 66.
Kempton finished with a game-high 37 points and 14 rebounds, while no other player on the roster scored more than 8 points.
The whole entire Huskies team played well with Christian Coraggio finishing with a team-high 22 points. Abraham Sesay contributed 14 points and Jordan Esser was the MVP for Horizon on the night with 12 points, 10 rebounds, 4 blocks and 3 steals. If Esser continues to play well; he should start getting looks from some colleges.
Some Quick Hitters: After watching the freshman and JV games, I found a few players that you need to know about: Horizon's 5-foot-11 freshman SG Joey Cipoletti scored 25 points in the freshman game, and Horizon 6-foot-5 post Matt Burdick and 6-foot-3 forward Josh Larsen all look to be good players in the future for Horizon HS, who beat Brophy in 2 overtimes.
Some younger Brophy standouts were 6-foot-2 freshman SG Bo Brunkhorst, 6-foot-1 freshman SG Dane Maggi, 6-foot-4 freshman forward Chris Stanley and 6-foot-6 freshman post Connor Murphy.
