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Brunswick Basketball Preview: Bruins Fall In Home Opener

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By Rob Adams

They’re young and they’re ready. The pieces just need to come together.

That’s the theme for Brunswick first-year head coach Steve Juricek and his basketball team. The Bruins have talent, led by co-captains Graham Pierce and Muna Nwana. They also have height, with sophomores Jack Molloy and Khari Wilson, who are listed at 6-5.

The Bruins came into Tuesday’s FAA opener with Masters School off losses to Taft and Millbrook to start the season. While Brunswick had an early lead against the Panthers, it was Masters who ran away with a 76-49 win at the Dann Gymnasium.

It was also the home opener for the Bruins.

The Panthers accelerated to a 44-23 lead as the teams headed to the locker room, fueled by 14 points from sophomore guard Sebastian Pacheco, who would finish with 23 points. Junior forward Nicolas Rivera-Torres led all scorers with 27 points, including three from beyond the arc.

The Bruins were paced by Molloy with 13 points, which senior forward Harrison Caponiti went for 11 points and eight rebounds.

“Today we were attacking better than we have been in first two games,” Juricek said. “We were attacking the rack and putting pressure on the defense.”

“We saw a lot of good things today,” Caponiti said. “A lot of progress from our last game. I think our system is starting to come into place a little better.”

Caponiti believes that the talent is there to run with anyone.

“I think we have a crazy amount of talent,” he said. “If you look at our team, we’re as good as most of the teams in this league. We just have to start executing.”

Brunswick is coming off a season that saw them finish at 8-14 (6-8 FAA), ending the season with a 51-50 loss in the FAA quarterfinals to Masters.

Now it is Juricek’s team, and the New Jersey native is ready for the challenge.

“I’ve been coaching AAU for about the last decade,” he said. “So far, this has been a dream job.”

Assisting Juricek on the bench is Zach Dobbs, a 2006 graduate of Brunswick who played basketball for his father, Greg. Shawn Harris – a familiar face to Brunswick as both a football and basketball assistant – stays on, after being part of former coach Robert Taylor’s staff.

Juricek described both Caponiti and Brennan Troy as being new to the varisty team this year,and each player contributed, both on offense and defense, with Troy swatting a few Panthers’ shots away.

“We’re pretty much rotating about eight guys right now,” Juricek added. “We’re pretty deep, and we have a lot of size on the bench.”

The Bruins’ coach said that he expects to see a four guard setup, with Caponiti acting as the big presence. Nwana, among the leader scorers, will lead the way at point guard, but Juricek will lean on juniors Kevonne Wilder and Cedric LaFleur in the backcourt as well.

“Most of the other guys on the court are naturally a guard,” Juricek said. “Some of the guys have size, but they still prefer the perimeter. They can all handle the basketball, which is certainly a luxury to have.”

The schedule is a challenge, with a trip to King in front of a weekend trip to Massachusetts at Tabor.

“We’re looking forward to having five games in the next seven days,” he said.

With Juricek providing a fresh perspective, the coach says he is impressed not only with the culture of his team, but with the overall culture at Brunswick.

“I like it a lot,” he said. “It resonates throughout the rest of the faculty, the trainers, the coaches. Everybody bleeds brown and gold.”

“I speak to them about concepts and different things, and they pick it up like that, he added, snapping his fingers.

The victories will come, Juricek said. Caponiti echoed his coach.

“We’ve just got to keep taking steps forward, and it starts by upping the intensity in practice,” Caponiti said. “We plan on doing that this week.”

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