North Bend’s Michael Bishop gets a pass off around Chase Bansemer of Brookings-Harbor during their game Tuesday night. World Photo by Lou Sennick.

Free throws can be wonderful opportunities, but they also can be killers. It's all in what a team makes of them.

Brookings-Harbor's boys basketball team took advantage of its trips to the line, particularly in crunch time, and used a stifling defensive effort to beat host North Bend 56-46 Tuesday in a Far West League contest.

“Intensity is a big key for us,” Brookings-Harbor coach Bryan Wood said. “Good team win. We're all about defense.”

The Bruins knocked North Bend off balance for much of the game.

“They came ready to play,” North Bend coach John Olson said. “They flat got after it. They took us out of our offense. They should be very proud of their effort tonight and the way they played.”

Neither team shot particularly well, with the Bruins going 16-for-55 compared to 17-for-48 shooting by the Bulldogs. But the difference was at the free throw line, where Brookings-Harbor followed through, making 20 of 34 attempts, with several coming in the fourth quarter to keep North Bend at bay.

The Bulldogs shot 12-for-26. They also got to the charity stripe often, but just couldn't convert.

“We played hard, we got where we needed to be,” North Bend wing Brandon Mattecheck said. “We got to the line, we just couldn't make our free throws. On our press we gave away a lot of fouls. That put them at the line and they stepped up and made their free throws.”

The two teams continually tied the game and traded leads throughout the first three quarters, but Brookings-Harbor put together a 10-0 run - including four points by Garrett Long and two each by Kristian Demian, Kenny Eszlinger and Chase Bansemer - that bridged the third and fourth stanzas to put the Bruins up for good.

North Bend came close after 3-pointers by Kerry Larsen and Michael Bishop cut the deficit to four with 1:04 to play. But when North Bend was forced to foul to stop the clock in the final minute, the Bruins combined to shoot 7-for-10 to put the game away.

The Bulldogs were at the line several times in the second half, as well, but shot just 3-for-12 from the line in the fourth quarter and 5-for-15 in the second half.

“We had enough opportunities to tie it up and go ahead down a stretch,” Olson said. “We were keeping them from scoring. They were fouling us and we couldn't make our free throws. I wouldn't say we totally squandered our opportunities, because Brookings took advantage of all their opportunities.”

North Bend hung tight throughout the first half, taking the lead for the first time on a putback basket by Elliot Adams late in the first quarter. But Brookings-Harbor put together an 11-1 run in the second quarter to go up by six, its largest lead of the first half.

Bansemer led the Bruins with 14 points and Long added 13. Bruins senior Brett Mattos led his team with seven rebounds as they outrebounded North Bend 38-27.

Mattecheck and Bishop scored 11 each and Larsen added 10, to go along with six rebounds. Adams tallied nine boards to go along with his eight points. Mattecheck also finished with five rebounds.

With the big win, Brookings-Harbor moved into a four-way tie for first place with Coquille, South Umpqua and Sutherlin at 2-1. The Bulldogs slipped to 1-2, good for fifth place.

The Bruins are winning the old-fashioned way - with tenacious defense and doing the little things right, like making free throws. The team spends about 45 minutes every morning before school in the gym shooting free throws, and it paid off.

“It's those little things like that that make the difference,” Wood said. “Especially on the road.”