O'Connor holds off heroic comeback from Brophy for 71-66 win

The O’Connor Eagles took down the undefeated Brophy Broncos 71-66 in a game that came down to the wire. 

Knowing they had a challenge ahead of them, O’Connor wanted to get out to a fast start.

Moments after the tipoff, senior guard Rylan Parsley turned a steal into a transition dunk to start the game off. 

Before the game even started, Parsley told his team he was going to make a statement right away.

“I was talking in the locker room, I said I’m setting the tone on the first play,” Parsley said. “That was a huge one, I felt like it set the tone to begin the game.” 

O’Connor had a smooth start as they led 16-7 in the middle of the first quarter. 

Closing out the first quarter, Brophy started to find a groove on offense and even cut the lead to just two points. 

That was when O’Connor’s junior guard, Carter Glass, seemed like he couldn’t miss at the end of the first quarter as he hit back-to-back three pointers. 

Around halfway through the second quarter, Brophy was once again playing catch-up as they cut O’Connor’s lead to just three points. 

Helping cut the lead was the Broncos' senior wing, Hale Hansen, who was everywhere on the court against the Eagles and had two vicious dunks in the second quarter. 

Once again, though, after letting up on their lead, O’Connor responded with a run of their own to close out the first half as they led 42-29 over Brophy. 

In the third quarter, the Eagles' identity was evident throughout. 

They played suffocating defense on Brophy while also securing multiple second-chance opportunities with offensive rebounds. 

O’Connor head coach Joshua Cole was happy with how physical his team was on Wednesday night. 

“We wanted to send a message that we are right here and physical too,” Cole said. “We thought we did that.” 

One of the players who was aggressive on defense and on the glass was the Eagles' senior guard Colton Watson. 

Watson finished the game with 18 points and helped O’Connor lead 57-43 heading into the fourth and final quarter. 

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, everything was going the Eagles' way, and they even led by almost 20 points. 

It seemed as though the game was too far out of reach; that was when Brophy mounted a comeback attempt. 

The Bronocs got continuous stops on defense while hitting three pointers on the other end.

Hitting timely three’s for Brophy were Hansen and senior forward Rocket Schwertley. 

Then, in what seemed like nothing could stop Brophy, senior guard and 3-star Stanford football commit Daylen Sharper hit a contested three-pointer to cut O’Connor’s lead to just three points with 19 seconds left in the game. 

O’Connor then went back to what they did so well earlier in the game, and that was play great defense.

The Eagles were able to force Brophy to turn the ball over and get the ball back with seven seconds remaining. 

“Our defense is the reason we won the game,” Parsley said. “As they say, defense wins games.”

Making sure they wouldn’t choke the game away, Parsley put the game in his hands as he was sent to the free-throw line to close it out for O’Connor.

Hitting both free throws, Parsley gave O’Connor a five-point lead and the victory over Brophy. 

The season is still young, but Cole takes pride in how his team has taken on challenges early on.

“We’re getting better,” Cole said. “We’ve responded to some adversity. We’ve had a lot of adversity early, and we have started to respond the right way.” 

Next up: 8-4 O’Connor takes on 10-1 Corona Centennial (CA). 6-1 Brophy faces 4-3 Pleasant Grove (UT).