Brewer loses to Tigers

By By Todd Thompson, Hartselle Enquirer
HANCEVILLE - Brewer brought a No. 2 ranking to the Northwest Regionals last week with every intention of making a return trip to Birmingham for the Final 48.
Instead, the Lady Patriots suffered through a 60-41 loss to Russellville in the Class 5A girls’ semifinals at Wallace State Community College’s Tom Drake Coliseum.
The loss ends Brewer’s season at 23-5 overall.
Chelsey Smith and Elizabeth Bromirski teamed up for most of the Lady Patriots’ offense, with Smith finishing with a team-high 16 points.
She also pulled down eight rebounds on the way to all-tournament honors.
Bromirski had 12 points in the loss.
Russellville used a strong start to the second half to pull away from Brewer and the Lady Patriots never recovered.
Natasha West scored 28 points for the Lady Golden Tigers, while Amber Elliott hit all five of her shots from the field to finish with 10 points.
Russellville used its size advantage to pull away to double-digit leads on several occassions in the second half.
Brewer managed to trim the gap to just nine points at 43-34, but Russellville exploded to score 17 of the next 19 points in the game.
Brewer had a pair of 3-pointers from Bromirski and another from Smith during the run.
Brewer struggled down the stretch, hitting just three baskets in the game’s final three minutes.