THOMASVILLE — A bout with turnovers early last season caused Brookwood’s offense to experience a slowdown.

The addition of Thomas County Central transfers Keith Bentley and Rodger Walker should help provide the Warriors with a much faster pace this basketball season.

“We’re going to be a little different team this year,” Brookwood coach Brad Piazza said. “I’ve always liked to play up-tempo, transition basketball and make teams play at your speed.

“Last year, we started off playing like we normally do, and through the first five games we averaged 33 turnovers and scored 19 points once and 20 twice.

“So, we went back to the drawing board, so to speak. We had to keep it under 50 points.”

Still, the Warriors hope to not hit full speed for at least two more weeks since the Brookwood football team will travel to Trinity Christian on Friday in the GISA Class AA playoffs. Brookwood opens the season tonight at Aucilla Christian with just six players.

That increased tempo seemed to suit the Warriors fine this summer. Piazza said Brookwood averaged close to 70 points during running-clock games during the offseason. The quicker pace should also fit junior point guard Blair Austin well.

Austin, who transferred to Brookwood from Central at semester last year, sparked the Warriors during the second-half of the season.

“Football, you’ve got 11 guys and it’s hard for one person to come in and make a huge difference,” Piazza said about Austin’s impact last year. “Whereas, last year, because we were missing one person, we had guys playing out of position. When we got Blair back, it put everybody back where they were better suited.”

In addition to playing faster, Piazza said the new Warriors should help open things up offensively, by adding a perimeter game that struggled at times last year.

“There’s no question that, offensively, we should be able to score much more consistently than last year,” he said. “I also think we should be able to stretch defenders a little bit, because last year everybody knew we weren’t a great perimeter shooting team.

“This way, we can stretch the defense, because Scott (Cheney) shot the ball well this summer. William (Lee) shot real well. Rodger can shoot it. Blair’s shooting has improved. So, they’ve got to defend it and when they do, with the quickness we have out front, we’re going to get a lot of slashes and cuts to the basket.”

One area of concern for the Warriors comes in the post. With the graduation of Ashton Thomas, Brookwood is missing its top rebounder and inside presence. However, Piazza is hopeful that Charles Scott, Clay Childs and Kevin Clark can continue playing well after strong summers.

“If you looked at paper, that would probably be our biggest concern if we run into somebody that has a dominant center,” he said. “Kevin and those guys did a great job.”