West Milton, Ohio — The 10-3 #4 Milton-Union Bulldogs hosted Cedarville University commit Grant Whisman and the 13-2 #5 Middletown Madison Mohawks. Milton was looking for a chance to claim the top spot in the SWBL Buckeye division with a win in this game and Madison was looking to continue their dominant season and beat the Bulldogs to gain first place in the SWBL.
Milton-Union got off to a 4-0 start but Grant Whisman responded nailing a three in the face of the defender. Whisman continued to play well as he hit a jumper and then hit a corner three to put Madison up 10-4. Jake Edwards got a pair of layups and suddenly Madison was up 16-4. Senior Nathan Brumbaugh was not ready for Milton to be out of it already as he drilled a corner three. The score at the end of the 1st was 16-7, all Mohawks early.
Freshman Blake Brumbaugh got the second quarter started off with a jumper and then Nathan Brumbaugh got a steal and score to cut the deficit to 5. Whisman electrified the small but present Madison student section with a dunk and then extended the lead to 21-11 with another contested three. Brandon Lavy hit a corner three for Milton-Union, and that would be your halftime score as Middletown Madison led Milton-Union 21-14 after one half of basketball.
Whisman began the second half with a bang as slammed home a dunk to put Madison up 9. The Bulldogs responded though, Blake Brumbaugh hit a mid-range jumper and gave a nice inside pass to Nathan Brumbaugh to cut the Mohawk lead to 7. Right when it looked like Milton had a chance to tie the game, Whisman hit a corner three to extend the lead back to 6. Nathan Brumbaugh responded with a contested three of his own. A pair of layups including an and-one from Whisman made it a 9 point game again. Milton-Union junior Justin Randall got an and-one of his own to put the Bulldogs back in the game. The freshman Blake Brumbaugh then went to work and got an and-one as Milton-Union cut the deficit back down to 5 points at the end of the quarter as Madison led 40-35 heading into the 4th.
Nathan Brumbaugh started off the final quarter with a three from NBA range to cut it to a 3 point game. Whisman and the Brumbaugh duo traded buckets down the stretch until with around 1:30 to play, senior Tristan Sipple drilled a dagger to put Madison up 8. Whisman finished off whatever the Bulldogs had left in their tank with a transition layup. Milton-Union was defeated 59-45 by Middletown Madison. The score doesn’t show what kind of game and fight the Bulldogs put up as they competed with a top D-III opponent.
Grant Whisman led Madison with 37 points and 9 rebounds as he powered the Mohawks in the win. Jake Edwards also finished with 9 points for Madison. Milton-Union was led by Nathan Brumbaugh who had 20 points as he went 8/13 from the field. Freshman Blake Brumbaugh had 8 points, which is below his 15 points that the freshman guard usually averages.
Middletown Madison has out of conference games against Bethel and Middletown Christian next week and Milton-Union has games against SWBL foe Brookville and CCC opponent Tri-County North. Both of those games will be good tests for Madison.