By Dan Irwin
New Castle News

At Wilmington, no one’s ever done until they’re done.

Take, for example, senior Ryan Brumbaugh. After lettering in basketball as a sophomore, he opted not to play in 2011-12. Career over? Not by a long shot.

Brumbaugh returned to the Greyhounds this year and last night muscled in 14 points to help Wilmington roll to a 76-53 District 10 Region 2-AA win over Greenville.

Similarly, the ’Hounds themselves looked to be finished at midseason after posting a 1-5 record in the first half of region play. Last night’s triumph, though, gave them a 4-1 second-half mark and kept their longshot playoff hopes alive.

“We started off (the season) bad, but we just never got down on ourselves and we just pulled it together,” Brumbaugh said. “It’s a lot more fun now, especially winning on Senior Night. I’ll remember this for a long time.”

The win, combined with Sharpsville’s loss to Lakeview, left Wilmington and the Blue Devils tied for third place at 5-5. But the ’Hounds likely need to upset West Middlesex — the state’s No. 6-ranked Class AA team — on Friday and have Sharpsville lose to Greenville (1-10, 4-16) to slip into postseason play.

“If we both win, they (Sharpsville) probably go in ahead of us, and maybe we hope for a play-in game up north,” Wilmington head coach Mike Jeckavitch said. “We know that we put our backs against the wall by not starting out section play very well, but they’ve really turned it around, and this is great momentum and a great experience for our guys. We wanted them to have a chance to be in it the last week, and that’s where we’re at right now.

“And basically, I’ve got five starters returning to next year’s team, plus very good role players off the bench. I think our future’s bright here at Wilmington.”

One guy Jeckavitch has been glad to have back this year is Brumbaugh. The 6-foot-1 senior was a formidable force inside against the Trojans last night.

“He’s a banger,” Jeckavitch said. “When he came to me and asked to come back out for the team, I said absolutely. He’s a guy that will grind and do what I need to do on the defensive end and get rebounds offensively and defensively.

“He’s an undersized big man, but he doesn’t play undersized.”

Brumbaugh said he missed not playing last year and has enjoyed being back on the court as a senior — even when the P.A. announcer introduces him as Rikki Brumbaugh, as happened prior to last night’s game. Rikki Brumbaugh, his sister, keeps the scorebook.

“Yeah, he’s done that a couple of times,” Brumbaugh shrugged. “I think Rikki’s had more points than I’ve had a couple of times this year.”

Wilmington led 37-30 at halftime last night before outscoring Greenville, 21-10, in the third quarter to take charge of the contest.

“We changed our defense basically every possession the second half,” Jeckavitch said. “We tried a 1-3-1 trap, we tried a man-to-man, a little 2-3 zone — it’s hard playing offense when you don’t know what defense is coming.

“They executed well in the second half on defense and we got a lot of defensive turnovers and transition points.”

Joining Brumbaugh with double-figures scoring nights were Jesse Hilliard with 12 points, Travis Brumbaugh with 11 and Nate Anthony and Davis Smith with 10 apiece.