By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – Briarwood and Westminster at Oak Mountain are separated by approximately 1.5 miles of Alabama 119, which creates for a fun atmosphere when the two square off in sports.

On Tuesday, Nov. 28, the two did just that in a boys basketball matchup held at Briarwood Christian School. Taking to the court just minutes after the Briarwood girls had picked up a 40-34 win, the Lion boys continued that winning trend with a 72-59 win to complete the sweep over the visiting Knights.

A large part of that success was due to the offense firing on all cylinders seemingly all night, something that started in the first quarter.

Thanks to three 3-pointers and five different scorers in the opening period, Briarwood (3-1) was able to put up 17 points, while Westminster managed seven less to give the Lions a 17-10 lead at the end of one.

The Knights saw just two players score as Sam Bradford had seven of the team’s 10 points in the quarter.

Briarwood’s defense turned up the pressure even more in the second quarter, limiting the Knights to just seven points, but Briarwood only managed 10 as the offense had its lowest scoring quarter of the game.

The low-scoring, defensive quarter gave the Lions a 27-17 lead heading into the halftime break.

Briarwood saw six different players score in the first half, while Westminster only got points from three different players.

That’s a trend that continued into the second half, but still saw both teams post their best offensive quarter of the game.

Thanks to 11 points from Hayden Lamey, Briarwood was able to get the upper hand for the third consecutive quarter, however, as the Lions posted 22 points to Westminster’s 18.

Parker Mixon had a strong quarter for the Knights with 11 points to keep his team in the contest as he hit all four of his free throws and three jump shots.

Mixon posted 15 more points in the final quarter of play as he posted all but three of his 29 points in the second half to try and bring his team from behind.

Briarwood was able to preserve the win though, thanks to a strong effort at the free throw line in the final period. The Lions went 10-13 from the line down the stretch to post 23 more points in the final quarter of play for the easy 72-59 win.

Briarwood was led by Lamey with 21 points, while Izaiah Jones added 15 points as well. Jack Dicen also ended the night in double figures with 14 points.

The Lions are still playing without several returning leaders who are on the football team, but have won three of four games to start the 2017-18 season.