Braves Basketball and Braves Sports

ALL-COUNTY TEAM

Trinity Lutheran’s Allison Posey is joined by the following girls basketball players on The Tribune’s all-county team:

Kyra Klosterman. The Trinity Lutheran senior led the team with 46 assists and 51 steals and was third with 95 rebounds; named co-most valuable player.

Haley Couch. The Trinity Lutheran junior was second on the team with 173 points and 42 assists.

Brianna Sons. The Trinity Lutheran junior was fourth on the team with 155 points.

Sidney Carr. The Seymour senior led the team with 230 points; named team’s offensive player of the year.

Brianna Gillaspy. The Seymour senior scored 142 points despite missing six games because of injury or illness; earned team’s mental attitude award for the second straight year.

Taylor Gossett. The Seymour senior led the team with 47 percent shooting from the field.

Logan Personett. The Seymour senior was second on the team with 182 points.

Kaylee Bennett. The Brownstown Central senior led the team with 187 points, 161 rebounds and 27 blocks and tied for the lead with 42 assists; finished at 13th on the school’s all-time scoring list with 736 points and fourth with 646 rebounds; earned rebound, most valuable player and Sectional 30 mental attitude awards; named to the East/West All-Star Team and Hoosier Basketball Magazine Top 100 Senior Girls.

Trinity Booher. The Brownstown Central junior shot a team-high 84 percent from the free-throw line and tied for the lead with 42 assists.

Brooke Ebbing. The Brownstown Central sophomore led the team with 38 percent shooting from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range.

Kasandra Rieckers. The Brownstown Central sophomore was second on the team with 40 assists and took on the role of starting varsity point guard.

Hannah Elkins. The Medora senior led the county girls in scoring with 307 points; became the school’s second member of the 1,000-point club and finished her career with 1,048 points.

Ashley Lambert. The Medora junior was second in the county with 295 points.

Alexis Adair. The Crothersville freshman led the team with 219 points and 36 3-pointers and shot a team-high 68 percent from the free-throw line; set the school record for 3-pointers in a game with seven against Clarksville.

Abby Jewell. The Crothersville freshman had a team-high 141 rebounds.

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By Arv Koontz- sports@thebanner.com

Banner/Arv Koontz Receiving special awards at the Brownstown Central girls basketball awards program held on Thursday night, Feb. 28 was in front, from left, Allie Warren, Trinity Booher and Ally Lorenzo; in back, Morgan Wehmiller, Kaley Wilkerson, Zach Wehmiller, Brooke Ebbing and Kaylee Bennett.

Kaylee Bennett meant a lot to the Brownstown Central girls’ basketball program, not only this year, but for her career.

Bennett scored a lot of important points, pulled down a lot of key rebounds, and came up with steals to help the Braves pull out a lot of victories.

Bennett topped off her senior season by being named the team’s most valuable player, and received several other special honors during the team’s awards program held on Thursday night in the school cafeteria.

“I wanted (Bennett) to be a leader,” coach Karla Rieckers said. “She went through some struggles early in the year but she came on strong. Kaylee has done great things in her career at Brownstown Central. I’m proud of her efforts.”

Bennett, a senior, topped the Braves in scoring this season with 189 points in 19 games for an average of 9.99. Her high-point games were 17 against Salem and 16 against Scottsburg, and she scored in double figures in 10 games.

Bennett topped the team in rebounds with 161 this season. She ranks fourth on the career rebound list with 646, and she ranks 13th on the career scoring list with 736 points.

Bennett shared the assists award with Trinity Booher as each girl had 42 this season.

Bennett was named recipient of the mental attitude award for Sectional 30, she was named to Hoosier Basketball Magazine’s top 100 seniors, and she has been selected to play in an East-West All-Star game on April 20 at Lebanon.

Allie Warren, another senior, received the Braves’ mental attitude award and was named the outstanding defensive player.

“She gave everything she had on the floor,” Rieckers said. “She didn’t quit. She found a way to get under the basket to get rebounds. She did all the little things to help the team. I could count on her getting steals, deflections and taking a charge. She led us in steals and deflections.”

Rieckers said the MVP and mental attitude awards were voted on by the players and the coaching staff.

Warren’s high-point games were 14 against Salem and 12 against Hauser.

Booher, in addition to being co-winner of the assists award, also received the free throw plaque as she made 65 of 77 for 84 percent. She scored 22 points against Eastern (Pekin) and 19 against New Washington.

Brooke Ebbing received the shooting award for making 53 of 138 shots from the floor for 38 percent. Her total included 8 of 20 3-pointers and her high-point games were 19 against Paoli and 14 against Eastern (Pekin).

Other senior players on the team were Presley Dmitirev and Kaley Wilkerson. Rieckers said Dmitriev has a good knowledge of girls’ and women’s basketball, and she was always watching college games on television. Wilkerson suffered a stress fracture during pre-season practices and wasn’t able to play in a game until January.

Rieckers said, after the girls played in leagues and attended camps last summer she had high hopes for this season, but various injuries to five of the varsity players prevented her from fielding a team that was 100 percent healthy for most of the games.

“When you look at this team, we had a ‘walking wounded’ season. We never got everybody healthy at the same time. The team shot below 40 percent and that’s the first time one of my teams have done that,” she said.

The Braves finished at 8-11, including 4-5 in the Mid-Southern Conference. Brownstown lost to Corydon Central in the Salem Sectional. “I couldn’t ask for any more of them in the sectional. If you want to get to that elite level, you have to play better teams. Five of our opponents were sectional champions. They had that never-quit atitude.”

Wilkerson and manager Zach Wehmiller received their letter jackets.

Junior varsity coach Lee Ann Borden said her team had an outstanding season with a record of 18-0. She said once the girls defeated Jennings County they felt like they had a good chance to go unbeaten.

Ally Lorenzo was named the most improved JV player, and Morgan Wehmiller received the free throw award for shooting 76 percent at the line.

Freshman coach George Wooten said his team “came along way” in posting a record of 9-2.

Rieckers said open gym begins Thursday from 7:30 to 9 p.m. “Now is the time to get better,” she said. “We have lots of room for improvement.The future looks bright.”

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The Brownstown Central High School girls junior varsity basketball team entered the Jan. 31 regular-season finale at Paoli with a 17-0 record.

Before the game, coach Lee Ann Borden could tell the girls were nervous. That showed when the team fell behind 7-0 in the first quarter.

But after a timeout, the Braves kicked in gear, took the lead and maintained for a 46-33 victory. That gave them an 18-0 finish to the season, and as far as school officials can determine, that is the first Brownstown JV basketball team — boys or girls — to go undefeated.

“I went to talk to them before warm-ups, and you could just see it in their eyes, they were

nervous,” Borden said. “Paoli wasn’t going to be a gimme game. They knew that it was going to be a fight. We actually came out the first three minutes of the first quarter, and I thought, ‘Oh, no.’ They weren’t playing their type of ball that they needed to do.”

Then came the turning point.

“I think they finally just settled down and started taking care of the basketball, playing defense, doing the things that they’ve done all year that’s got them to that point to win the game,” she said.

Playing a game is enough pressure.

But when an undefeated season is at stake, that’s added pressure.

“Our nerves were crazy in the first half of the first quarter,” sophomore post player Riley Wischmeier said. “You could tell when we got down 7-0. But then after the timeout, we kind of came together and were like, ‘We’re going to be fine. We can come back from this.’ Borden tried to remind us that there’s no pressure.”

Sophomore point guard Ally Lorenzo said it was a matter of the team calming down and getting into its flow. When the buzzer sounded and the Braves had won, Lorenzo and the Braves were excited.

“I couldn’t stop smiling,” Lorenzo said. “I was just the happiest I’ve ever been. It’s just a great feeling knowing that we had an undefeated season.”

Borden compared the feeling to winning a sectional title.

“They were so excited,” she said of her girls. “They were running, and they came to hug me. They were hooting and hollering. They were ecstatic. And I’m sure (Paoli’s) fans were like, ‘What is going on?’”

Going into the 2012-13 season, Borden had high expectations after the team went 15-2 the previous season.

“Last year, we had two bittersweet losses (to Jennings County and Paoli),” Borden said. “The girls, I don’t know that they came right out and said it, but this was a goal of ours, I think, to definitely beat that record. To go undefeated made it just that much sweeter. Those losses last year really, really bothered them. After beating Jennings County, then I think at that point in time, they were bound and determined to go undefeated. They weren’t going to let Paoli beat them.”

Borden said the girls worked together to make it a “true team.”

“They are unselfish. They work hard. They have fun, yet they knew what they needed to do,” she said. “At the beginning, after each game, we’d talk about things we needed to work on, and they would work on those. We just kept building and building and building.”

The Braves didn’t have a superstar player. They had balance.

“Any given game, anybody could step up and do something,” Borden said. “At the beginning, I only had three freshmen, and we pulled two more up, so I had five freshmen and then the six sophomores. Any given day, it could be a sophomore (stepping up). If somebody was hot, they would get them the basketball. They were very unselfish, and that’s what it takes to win ballgames.”

Wischmeier said the team fed off of its defense, and Lorenzo said it was always a well-rounded effort.

“We were really equal both inside and out,” Lorenzo said. “We had some height on the team, but then we had some good shooters, as well, and people who could drive. So we were pretty well-balanced as a team.”

During practices, Borden only worked with the sophomores because the freshmen worked with coach George Wooten for their games, and varsity coach Karla Rieckers worked with her players. For games, Borden shared some of her players with Wooten and Rieckers.

“The freshmen did a great job of adjusting, and it was an adjustment,” Borden said. “The pace of the game from freshman level to JV level is different. You’re playing against sophomores and even juniors. But with our numbers, it worked out that way, and it worked well. The sophomores that played varsity got that extra experience, and they got a lot of minutes of basketball, and that’s what it takes to get better.”

Borden coached the freshman volleyball team at BCHS for five years and produced winning seasons, and she took a year off before joining Rieckers’ staff for the 2008-09 basketball season. She was a freshman coach that year, but the team only played one game because of low numbers. The next year, she took over as JV coach, and she now has a record of 61-9 at that level.

“Last year, having the two losses in basketball, I was thinking, ‘Gosh, it would be really sweet (to go undefeated this season),’” she said. “So when it happened this year, for me, it reaffirms that I’m doing my job and I’m helping (Rieckers) build players, build a program. And I know these girls, it just means so much, and I think it gives them the confidence moving forward. They are going to have that confidence to know that they can accomplish something great.”

Wischmeier said she gained confidence.

“It’s just a great feeling all around to know that you set something that everyone will know about in the future,” she said. “I’m excited for next year.”

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Banner/Jeff Lubker
BROWNSTOWN Central’s Trinity Booher shoots a jump shot over Scottsburg’s Hannah Gillespie in the first half of their Mid-Southern Conference game on Tuesday night, Jan. 29.

The Brownstown Central Lady Braves girls’ basketball team closed out the home portion of its schedule Tuesday night, Jan. 29, against Scottsburg in a Mid-Southern Conference game. The visiting Warriorettes ruined senior night for the Braves by walking away with the 55-49 win.

“It is disappointing in a way, but I am proud of the effort that our girls had to fight back,” Braves Coach Karla Rieckers said. “If you saw us in the first half and I looked at my coaches and I said I don’t know what to do. Everything I had on the scouting report and everything that we had went over in practice we didn’t do.

“It didn’t matter what I said or did and the timeouts I used, we just didn’t play. The girls know it’s on them and they know they have to put it together when they step on the floor and start executing the game plan.”

Scottsburg’s Kelsey Smith hit two free throws to give her team a 47-28 lead in the fourth quarter, but Trinity Booher and Kaylee Bennett hit back-to-back shots to cut the lead to 15. After Smith hit another shot for Scottsburg, Booher hit two free throws that started an 8-0 run and go the lead down to nine.

After a free throw by Smith, Presley Dmitriev had a jump shot, Bennett collected an offensive rebound with a put back and Kaley Wilkerson followed suit with an offensive board and put back with 56.4 seconds left to make it 50-46.

After the Warriorettes took it back to six, Booher drained a 3-pointer with 35.8 seconds left to make it 52-49. The Warriorettes then scored the final three points from the free throw line to secure the win.

The Braves came out a little shell-shocked in the first quarter as Scottsburg jumped out to a 16-5 lead. In the second quarter the Braves trailed by 15 points on two different occasions, but a 7-0 run by the Braves to end the quarter gave them some momentum at halftime to trim the lead to 24-16.

Bennett had three points, Wilkerson had a basket and Dmitriev hit a jumper at the buzzer.

“At halftime we talked about how to adjust to the pressure they were putting on us,” Rieckers said. “We had talked about it at practice and worked on it and went over it and over it, but then we get in the game tonight and we act as if we hadn’t talked about it.

“From that standpoint it was disappointing. We talked about that we have to make bounce passes against them because they are so aggressive, tall and quick. We talked about we need to set the screen on the top and have the guard drive. It was just executing the game plan we had.”

Scottsburg outscored Brownstown 17-10 in the third quarter.

A couple of positives for the Braves were the fact they hit 12 of 13 from the free throw line and outrebounded the Warriorettes 37-31. Bennett led the Braes with eight boards and three other players had five rebounds.

Bennett led the Braves with 16 points and Booher had nine points. Smith led the Warriorettes with 22 points and Katie Wampler added 14.

The Braves said goodbye to five seniors before the game.

“Kaylee (Bennett) has been on varsity for four years for us and she has put a lot of time in the gym, both on and off season,” Rieckers said. “She has spent about as much time in hours as I do and she comes in on the floor and provides leadership. I talk about Allie (Warren) and I probably have not had a kid who works as hard as her day-after-day and leaves everything on the floor.

“As for Presley (Dmitriev) there is not much to her as she is not very big, but is the scrappiest people out there and I know this year has been a disappointing year for Kaley (Wilkerson) as she suffered a stress fracture early and trying to get her in shape that we need to get her in.

“Then Zach (Wehmiller) our manager and he has been taking care of our new computer system, so he will have to train someone else to have somebody for another year. Managers are people who don’t get all the credit, but Zach deserves ton of credit for the work he does.”

The Braves junior varsity team remained undefeated on the year with one game left as they defeated the Warriorettes 54-14. Riley Wischmeier led with 16 points and Ally Barnette tallied 13.

The Braves are now 8-9 overall and 4-5 in the conference and they will close out the regular season on Thursday night, Jan. 31 at Paoli.

Tuesday, Jan. 29, at Brownstown

SHS 16 8 17 14 ??“ 55

BCHS 5 11 10 23 ??“ 49

BCHS (4-5, 8-9): Kasandra Rieckers 1 0-0 2, Trinity Booher 3 2-2 9, Brooke Ebbing 1 0-0 2, Kaylee Bennett 6 4-5 16, Presley Dmitriev 2 4-4 8, Jaelyn Reynolds 3 0-0 6, Riley Wischmeier 0 2-2 2, Kaley Wilkerson 2 0-0 4. Totals 18 12-13 49

Scottsburg (8-1, 13-7): Ashley Elliott 3 3-4 9, Kelsey Smith 8 3-5 22, Katie Wampler 5 4-7 14, Cara Bulington 1 1-3 3, Samantha Beverly 0 1-2 1, Hannah Gillespie 2 0-0 6. Totals 19 12-21 55

3-point goals: BCHS 1 (Booher), Scottsburg 5 (Smith 3, Gillespie 2); Rebounds: BCHS 37 (Bennett 8), Scottsburg 31 (Elliott 11); Turnovers: BCHS 22, Scottsburg 17; Fouls: BCHS 16, Scottsburg 11

Junior varsity

SHS 4 8 0 2 ??“ 14

BCHS 17 12 16 9 ??“ 54

BCHS (17-0): Wischmeier 16, Ally Barnette 13, Olivia Goecker 8, Morgan Wehmiller 7, Ally Lorenzo 3, Reynolds 3, Bailey Bonebright 2, Elizabeth Lee 2

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Corydon Central’s experience was a big factor in the outcome of the Panthers’ 53-46 Mid-Southern Conference win over Brownstown Central on Saturday afternoon.

That is the opinion of Braves coach Karla Rieckers, who saw the Panthers score the first 12 points of the fourth period. “You look at their team and they have all five of their starters back from last year,” she said. “They’ve been in that situation, where we’re fairly young and we like to think we have people who have been in those situations and don’t make those mistakes.

“Experience can do wonders for a team, and Corydon certainly has it and we just made some bad decisions.”

The Braves held a 34-27 lead going into the fourth quarter before the Panthers began their rally. Corydon took its first lead of the afternoon (36-34) on a basket by Marie Rothrock with five minutes remaining.

Corydon extended its lead to 39-34 before Kaley Wilkerson made a jump shot from the right corner with 3:50 remaining for a 39-36 score. The Panthers extended their lead to 47-38 before the Braves rallied to close to 47-43 on a 3-point basket by Presley Dmitriev with 48 seconds left.

Rothrock scored all 11 of her points in the fourth period. “Rothrock is probably their leading scorer,” Rieckers said. “She does a nice job. She had missed some shots in the first half, and she was coming off screens and they screen-and-roll very well and we didn’t adjust to it.”

Brownstown held a 13-8 lead at the end of the first quarter. A 3-point basket by Kaylee Bennett at the 5:30-mark of the second gave the Braves their biggest lead of the game at 21-10.

Rieckers said she didn’t feel like the Braves made good decisions at the end of the first half when the Panthers scored seven straight points for a 21-17 score at the intermission. “The end of half I didn’t think we ended very strong. We had quite a few turnovers there in a row and played into their trap that they were doing.

“We rebounded in the third quarter and came back fairly nice, and then in the fourth quarter we kind of lost our composure.”

Ebbing topped the Braves with 12 points, and Bennett was high rebounder for Brownstown with nine. Taylor Frederick and Aly Chambers also had 11 points apiece for the 14-5 Panthers.

On Thursday night the Braves outscored North Harrison 42-30 in the final three periods for a 50-42 MSC win.

Bennett topped the Braves in scoring with 14 points and Brooke Ebbing scored 12.

Rieckers said,“From where we were the first couple of games in November to today, we’ve made tons of improvement, and that’s one of the things I keep telling the girls, and I told them when they leave the lockeroom today to keep their heads up. I think on any given night we can give anybody a game and compete with anybody.”

The Braves junior varsity team moved to 16-0 on the year with a 34-14 win over the Panthers. Riley Wischmeier led the Braves with 11 points.

The Braves take an 8-8 season and 4-4 MSC record into tonight's Senior Night game against Scottsburg.


Saturday, Jan. 26, at Brownstown

CCHS 8 9 10 26 ??“ 53

BCHS 13 8 12 13 ??“ 46

BCHS (4-4, 8-8): Allie Warren 1 4-4 7, Brooke Ebbing 4 1-2 12, Kaylee Bennett 3 1-2 8, Kasandra Rieckers 2 0-0 4, Trinity Booher 3 0-0 8, Presley Dmitriev 1 0-0 3, Kaley Wilkerson 2 0-0 4. Totals 16 6-8 46

Corydon (6-2, 14-5): Marie Rothrock 4 2-2 11, Taylor Fredrick 4 3-5 11, Kayla Uhl 0 3-9 3, Symphony LeJeune 2 0-0 6, Reagan Mosley 2 22-2 6, Aly Chambers 3 4-4 11, Savannah Eschbacher 1 3-4 5. Totals 16 17-26 53

3-point goals: BCHS 8 (Ebbing 3, Booher 2, Warren, Bennett, Dmitriev), Corydon 4 (LeJeune 2, Rothrock, Chambers); Rebounds: BCHS 26 (Bennett 9, Warren 5), Corydon 20 (Fredrick 5, Rothrock 5); Turnovers: BCHS 22, Corydon 10; Fouls: BCHS 20 (fouled out: Rieckers), Corydon 11.

Junior varsity

BCHS 10 6 11 7 ??“ 34

CCHS 3 1 8 2 ??“ 14

BCHS (16-0): Riley Wischmeier 11, Jaelyn Reynolds 8, Olivia Goecker 4, Bailey Bonebright 4, Morgan Wehmiller 3, Madison Persinger 2, Ally Barnette 2.

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Team fails to hold onto early leads

Corydon’s experience was a big factor in the outcome of the Panthers’ 53-46 MSC win over Brownstown in Saturday afternoon’s girls game.

That is the word from Braves coach Karla Rieckers, who saw the Panthers score the first 12 points of the fourth quarter.

“You look at their team, and they have all five of their starters back from last year,” she said. “They’ve been in that situation, where we’re fairly young and we like to think we have people who have been in those situations and don’t make those mistakes. Experience can do wonders for a team, and Corydon certainly has it, and we just made some bad decisions.”

The Braves held a 34-27 lead going into the fourth quarter before the Panthers began their rally. Corydon took its first lead, 36-34, on a basket by Marie Rothrock with five minutes remaining, and the Panthers extended their lead to 47-38 before the Braves pulled within four points on a 3-point basket by Presley Dmitriev with 48 seconds left.

Rothrock scored all 11 of her points in the fourth period, and Rieckers said, “She does a nice job. She had missed some shots in the first half, and she was coming off screens, and they screen-and-roll very well, and we didn’t adjust to it.”

Brownstown held a 13-8 lead at the end of the first quarter, and then led by as many as 11 in the second quarter. But they allowed the Panthers to score seven straight points for a 21-17 score at intermission.

Taylor Frederick and Aly Chambers also had 11 points apiece for the 14-5 Panthers, while Brooke Ebbing topped the Braves with 12 points.

The Braves are 4-4 in the MSC and 8-8 overall going into Tuesday night’s final conference game at home against Scottsburg.

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Midway through the second quarter of Saturday’s Brownstown Central-Brown County girls basketball game, the host Eagles led 11-9 after a 3-point basket.

During the next three minutes, however, the Braves scored 12 straight points to lead 21-11.

Brownstown continued to lead throughout the rest of the game, and the Braves managed to eke out a 41-39 win and move to 7-7 on the year, while the Eagles fell to 7-7.

This was the Braves’ first win at Brown County since the 2008-09 season, and coach Karla Rieckers was happy to walk away with the win.

“I thought for the most part, we had a pretty good game,” she said. “There were a few minutes there where they put on the press and we panicked and made a few turnovers we shouldn’t have.”

In the third quarter, Brownstown’s Trinity Booher hit a 3-pointer to push the lead to 30-20. After the Eagles scored four straight points, Brooke Ebbing closed out the quarter with back-to-back baskets for a 34-25 lead.

Both teams went back-and-forth in the fourth quarter. The Eagles’ Rachel Smith hit a bucket to cut the Braves’ lead to 38-35. Ebbing dropped in two free throws to make it a five-point game.

Booher then hit a free throw with 14.4 seconds left to make it 41-37, and Brown County’s Whitney Williamson scored the final basket of the game for the final margin.

The Eagles turned the ball over five times in the first quarter but led 6-5, and they finished with 16 turnovers. The Braves had seven first-quarter turnovers and 18 for the game.

The big difference in the game was the big run by the Braves in the second quarter.

“We have talked about putting together four quarters, and against New Washington the other night, we didn’t play up to our potential in the first half,” Rieckers said. “We talk about that if we play four quarters, we can give the teams a competitive game, and I thought we did that today.

“We have a few people on our team that are turnover-ridden, and I know they know better, but for one of them, it’s nerves and jitters. I was really pleased the way they calmed down and handled the basketball.”

Ebbing led the Braves with 13 points, while Kaylee Bennett collected nine rebounds.

Rebecca Wedan led the Eagles with a game-high 16 points.

The Braves are back in action Thursday at home against North Harrison for a Mid-Southern Conference game.

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Overcome second half turnovers to gain win

(Zach Spicer - The Tribune)

There might not be too much from the second half of Thursday’s home game with Hauser that will be in the Brownstown Central girls basketball team’s season highlight reel.

After turning the ball over 10 times in the first half, the Braves piled up 14 in the third quarter and only scored 10 points. They had eight more miscues in the final quarter to finish with a season-high 32 turnovers.

But toward the end of the game, Brownstown made some free throws and defensive stops and pulled out a 54-43 victory.

“I thought we started the game really strong the way we needed to, and our press was being effective, and we caused some turnovers for them,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “Then, we just kind of get satisfied and stand around. We need to make sure that we put together a consistent game, and tonight just was very up and down for us.”

The Braves got their transition game going in the first quarter to jump out to a 10-5 lead. The Jets shot 1 for 16 from the field and had six turnovers in the quarter, and the home team led 16-7 through eight minutes.

Trinity Booher’s free throws at 5:23 of the second quarter gave Brownstown a 22-8 lead. But from there, Hauser outscored Brownstown 8-6 to pull within 28-16 at the break.

Allie Warren had a nice baseline drive for a 30-18 score a minute into the second half, and Booher converted a three-point play at 5:26 for a 37-20 lead. The Braves, however, then made several unforced errors and allowed the Jets to finish the quarter on a 10-1 run.

“We talked about meeting the pass, and I told them, ‘It’s basic basketball,’” Rieckers said. “We can’t just throw a ball. The recipient also has to meet the pass, and it takes everybody.”

The closest Hauser was able to get in the final quarter was 48-43 with 48 seconds to go on Paige Miller’s score off of a Brownstown turnover. The Braves shot 7 for 10 from the free-throw line in the fourth and forced some awkward shots for the Jets to finish out the game.

Warren topped the Braves with 12 points, while Kaylee Bennett had 11, and Presley Dmitriev had 10. Bennett made it a double-double with a game-high 10 rebounds.

Brownstown’s 6-foot-2 senior center, Kaley Wilkerson, made her first appearance of the season after recovering from an injury, and she tallied two points and four rebounds.

Hauser’s Ellie Trotter took game honors with 14 points.

The Braves (5-6) snapped a three-game losing streak, and on Saturday they will play host to Jennings County.

“Hopefully, we can get things corrected before Saturday,” Rieckers said. “I guess when you’re trying to find a positive, it’s a win, and we needed a win, so we’ll take that and hopefully learn from it and be ready to play four quarters on Saturday.”

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Advantage at the line keys win

For the past few weeks, coach Karla Rieckers has been waiting for her Brownstown Central girls basketball team to come up with a performance like it did Saturday afternoon against Jennings County.

“I thought today, for the most part, we put together a complete game,” Rieckers said after the Braves outscored the Panthers 13-4 in the third quarter and went on to win 46-37.

“You could maybe take out a minute or two here or there, but we really put together a complete game,” she said. “Typically, we have not been a strong third-quarter team. We’ve struggled in games past, and I was really pleased with our effort today.

“We played zone all day today, and that is something we typically don’t play. But we really felt with the size (the Panthers) had on the inside, to combat that, we needed to play some zone, and I thought overall, we did a nice job on that. We did get beat on the offensive boards. We did give up quite a few offensive boards to them, especially in the first half, and we talked about adjusting to that in the second half.”

Jennings County took advantage of Brownstown’s slow start to lead 9-2 halfway through the opening period.

The Panthers were on top 12-8 going into the second quarter, but the Braves grabbed their first lead, 17-16, on a jump shot from the top of the key by Trinity Booher at 2:40. The Panthers held a 23-19 lead at the half.

Jennings County was leading 25-19 when Brownstown went on a 7-0 run, capped by Brooke Ebbing’s three-point play at 2:32.

The Braves held a 32-27 lead going into the final period. The Panthers closed the gap to 39-37 on a 3-pointer by Emma Campbell with 2:25 remaining.

But with 1:10 to go,

Ebbing’s layup gave Brownstown a 42-37 lead, erupting a loud cheer from the Brave fans.

The Braves made 22 of 29 free throws, including 10 of 15 in the fourth period. Jennings County was 6 for 13 for the afternoon.

“You take away the first three games of the season, and we’ve been a pretty good free-throw shooting team,” Rieckers said. “I’m glad we could knock them down today when they counted.”

All nine Braves that played scored at least two points. Ebbing led with 13, while Allie Warren added eight and Booher scored seven.

Ebbing said she felt as if the Braves mixing up their zone defenses had an effect on the Panthers, which were led by Campbell with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

“I don’t remember which quarter, but we went to a 3-2, and we had been playing a 2-3, and that worked out for us because we normally play man,” Ebbing said. “We talked to each other and worked things out.”

This was the Braves’ second straight win, and they pulled even at 6-6 on the season.

“The win feels good. Jennings is tough,” Ebbing said. “Rieckers said we need to build on this, and I totally agree with her. We need to play as a team and have good chemistry, and I think we’ll keep building and do better.”

“We’ve talked about how young we are with varsity experience returning,” Rieckers said. “I said we grew up today, and this was a team I knew that we had. I’d seen spurts of it. We just need to put it together consistently for four quarters.”

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Brownstown Central Lady Braves girls’ basketball team fell behind early to Class 3A No. 5 Madison on Tuesday night, Dec. 18. They rallied in the second quarter but faltered again in the third quarter as the Lady Cubs improved to 10-1 with a 60-45 win.

“I did challenge them to make sure we played hard on every possession, and we never gave up, and we battled to the end,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “I thought that we did give a good effort, and (the Cubs) are ranked No. 5 for a reason.”

The Cubs outscored the Braves 13-6 in the first quarter, but the Braves captured the second quarter 18-16 to trail 29-24 at the break. A seven point third quarter doomed the Braves.

Presley Dmitriev led the Braves with 12 points and Allie Warren added 10. Kaylee Bennett led with nine rebounds.

Brownstown turned the ball over 19 times.

The Braves junior varsity team remained undefeated on the season at 9-0 with a 36-25 win over the Cubs. Morgan Wehmiller led the way with 10 points, while Ally Lorenzo and Riley Wischmeier each had six.

Brownstown Central, 4-5, will compete in the Toby Yoho Classic on Dec. 27 and 28. Their first game is against Bloomington North.

Tuesday, Dec. 18, at Madison

BCHS 6 18 7 14 ??“ 45

MHS 13 16 13 18 ??“ 60

BCHS (4-5): Presley Dmitriev 4 4-6 12, Kasandra Rieckers 3 1-2 9, Allie Warren 5 0-0 10, Trinity Booher 1 0-0 2, Brooke Ebbing 0 2-2 2, Kaylee Bennett 2 2-3 6, Jaelyn Reynolds 1 2-3 4. Totals 16 11-16 45.

Madison (10-1): Crozier 6 6-6 18, Wynn 4 5-10 13, Povaleri 2 6-11 10, Bickers 3 1-3 8, Hecox 3 1-2 7, Thurnall 1 0-0 2, Hertman 1 0-0 2. Totals 20 19-32 60.

3-point goals: BCHS 2 (Rieckers 2), Madison 1 (Bickers); Rebounds: BCHS 33 (Bennett 9, Reynolds 6, Rieckers 5); Turnovers: BCHS 19; Fouls: BCHS 24, Madison 15

Junior varsity

BCHS 9 11 8 8 ??“ 36

MHS 9 8 3 5 ??“ 25

BCHS (9-0): Morgan Wehmiller 10, Ally Lorenzo 6, Riley Wischmeier 6, Olivia Goecker 4, Ally Barnette 4, Bailey Bonebright 2, Reynolds 2, Elizabeth Lee 2.

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Silver Creek got the ball in Alex Tinsley’s hands in the first half of Saturday’s Mid-Southern Conference game, and she took it to the Brownstown Central starting five.

So in the second half, when Brownstown’s deficit reached 18 points, coach Karla Rieckers went to her bench. Those players responded big time by causing turnovers and helping the Braves pull within six points heading into the fourth quarter.

Rieckers rotated the starters and bench players throughout the fourth quarter, and they forced eight more turnovers. Kaylee Bennett hit the team’s only 3-pointer at 1:15 for a 46-42 score, but the Dragons made free throws down the stretch for a 51-44 win.

“I was really pleased with how my bench came in and played,” Rieckers said. “When you look at the varsity experience that’s on the floor with them, there’s not much. They played extremely hard.

“I felt like, from our first five, we were getting beat pretty badly when we were on defense. (The Dragons) were scoring, feeding the post. When I went to my bench, I thought they stepped up and got us back in the game.”

Jaelyn Reynolds came off the bench and scored eight of her 10 points in the third quarter. Riley Wischmeier added a basket, while Ally Lorenzo and Trinity Booher provided a defensive presence.

“When my bench came in, we finally started looking in the post, and the post wanted the ball,” Rieckers said. “Jaelyn Reynolds, she was hard for them to stop, and she did a phenomenal job. We’re just going to have to play the people that are going to play the hardest.”

Three of those girls also play junior varsity, so the coaches had to watch their playing minutes in the varsity game.

“I was really, really pleased when they went in. They didn’t hold their heads down,” Rieckers said. “They competed on every single possession. I said, ‘It’s stop, score, stop.’ That’s what we needed them to do, and that’s what they came in and did for us.”

Tinsley’s fifth basket of the first quarter gave her team a 14-8 lead. During a five-minute span in the second quarter, the Dragons outscored the Braves 10-1, and they led 26-15 at the break.

The Braves forced the Dragons into 18 turnovers in the second half, and they limited the host team to only 10 shot attempts. Down the stretch, though, Silver Creek made 10 of its 13 free throws.

Tinsley took game honors with 24 points, and Emily Clayton added 16 to help the Dragons improve to 4-1 in the MSC and 6-2 overall.

Presley Dmitriev led the Braves (3-2, 4-4) with 11 points.

On Tuesday, Brownstown travels to play Class 3A No. 6 Madison.

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(Dennis Dunn - the Banner)

Brownstown Central Lady Braves girls' basketball team got off to a slow start in its Mid-Southern Conference game at Silver Creek on Saturday, Dec. 15, but a late rally wasn’t enough as the Lady Dragons pulled out the 51-44 win.

“I was really pleased with how my bench came in and played,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “When you look at the varsity experience that’s on the floor with them, there’s not much. They played extremely hard.

“I felt like, from our first five, we were getting beat pretty badly when we were on defense. (The Dragons) were scoring, feeding the post. When I went to my bench, I thought they stepped up and got us back in the game.”

The Dragons outscored the Braves 14-8 in the first quarter. In the second quarter the Dragons used an early 10-1 spurt to extend their lead to 15 and managed a 26-15 halftime lead.

“When my bench came in, we finally started looking in the post, and the post wanted the ball,” Rieckers said. “Jaelyn Reynolds, she was hard for them to stop, and she did a phenomenal job. We’re just going to have to play the people that are going to play the hardest.”

Jaelyn Reynolds gave the Braves a spark in the third quarter by scoring eight points as the Braves outscored the Dragons 15-10 and cut the lead to 36-30. The Braves got within four points in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t get no closer.

“I was really, really pleased when they went in. They didn’t hold their heads down,” Rieckers said about playing some junior varsity players. “They competed on every single possession. I said, ‘It’s stop, score, stop.’ That’s what we needed them to do, and that’s what they came in and did for us.”

Presley Dmitriev led the Braves with 11 points and Reynolds scored 10.

The Braves out-rebounded the Dragons 24-21 as Kaylee Bennett and Brooke Ebbing each had five.

The Braves junior varsity team defeated the Dragons 31-24 and Reynolds scored 24 points.

The Braves, 3-2 in the MSC and 4-4 overall, will step out of the conference on Tuesday night, Dec. 18 when they travel to play Madison.

Saturday, Dec. 15, at Sellersburg

BCHS 8 7 15 14 ??“ 44

SC 14 12 10 15 ??“ 51

Brownstown Central (3-2, 4-4): Presley Dmitriev 4 3-4 11, Kasandra Rieckers 2 1-1 5, Brooke Ebbing 2 1-2 5, Kaylee Bennett 2 0-0 5, Jaelyn Reynolds 4 2-2 10, Riley Wischmeier 1 2-2 4, Trinity Booher 0 4-6 4. Totals 15 13-17 44.

Silver Creek (4-1, 6-2): Kira Jamros 0 2-2 2, Emily Clayton 6 3-6 16, Lexi McFarland 0 6-6 6, Alex Tinsley 9 6-7 24, Kelsi Scott 1 0-0 2, Brooke Barnett 0 1-2 1. Totals 16 18-23 51.

3-point goals: BCHS 1 (Bennett), Silver Creek 1 (Clayton); Rebounds: BCHS 24 (Bennett 5, Ebbing 5), Silver Creek 21 (Tinsley 8); Turnovers: BCHS 18, Silver Creek 27; Fouls: BCHS 18 (fouled out: Reynolds), Silver Creek 16

Junior varsity

BCHS 12 10 4 5 ??“ 31

SC 1 7 8 8 ??“ 24

BCHS (8-0): Reynolds 14, Wischmeier 6, Morgan Wehmiller 5, Olivia Goecker 4, Jaylyn Quade

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CLARKSVILLE

Brownstown Central’s girls basketball team pulled ahead 12-3 after one quarter and took a 48-25 lead into the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s Mid-Southern Conference game at Clarksville. The Braves won 62-39.

“I thought we moved the ball better on offense,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “We still need to work on talking more on defense and on offense. We need to make sure we work on defense and blocking out. We’ve still got to get better at those things.”

Presley Dmitriev led the Braves with 11 points, followed by Allie Warren and Brooke Ebbing with 10 apiece. Kaylee Bennett had a team-high 10 rebounds to go along with her five points.

Clarksville’s Haley Jenkins scored a game-high 14 points.

Brownstown improved to 3-1 in the MSC and 4-3 overall and Saturday will travel to Silver Creek for another MSC game.

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PEKIN

When a basketball team has a deep bench and everyone contributes and plays together, it presents a challenge to opponents.

In Saturday’s Mid-Southern Conference game at Eastern (Pekin), Brownstown Central’s girls basketball team knew it would have to have a strong post presence. But when Kaylee Bennett got in some foul trouble, fellow starter Brooke Ebbing and two post players off the bench provided a spark.

They helped the Braves build a 26-20 lead at halftime, and Brownstown continued to play strong in the second half on its way to winning 74-54.

“Coming into this game, I was ready to play,” Ebbing said. “I knew I had to block these girls out because I knew they had a good post. When we split up in practice, we worked on post moves, and (the coaches) showed us everything (Eastern) did. So coming into it, we really knew what they did.”

Despite being whistled for her third foul at the 4:29 mark of the second quarter, Bennett came on strong in the second half and finished with seven points and nine rebounds. Ebbing had a game-high 14 rebounds to go along with 14 points, while post players Jaelyn Reynolds and Riley Wischmeier came off the bench and scored 11 and two points, respectively, and combined for 12 rebounds.

The Braves outrebounded the Musketeers 47-19.

“When we had some people get in foul trouble, we had other people that came in and stepped up and did a really nice job,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “I thought Jaelyn Reynolds came in and played well, and I thought Riley Wischmeier played well. When you’re playing a team that’s post-dominant the way Pekin is, to have your post players play as well as they did, I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

The Musketeers lost the inside presence of 6-foot-3 Jocelyn Mousty to graduation. This season, they have relied on Krista Roberts and Brooke Rodewig, and Rieckers said they have been averaging nearly 20 points per game. On Saturday, they combined for 27 points and 12 rebounds, but they were 9 of 19 from the free-throw line.

Brownstown led 15-12 after one quarter, but Eastern scored the first four points of the second quarter for its only lead of the game. Trinity Booher then made the Braves’ only 3-point shot of the night at 5:33 to put her team on top for the remainder of the game.

A big difference in the first half was Eastern getting to the free-throw line 17 times and only making seven, while Brownstown was 1 of 1. In the second half, the Braves were 28 of 33 to the Musketeers’ 7 of 17, and the teams combined for 36 fouls.

Brownstown outscored Eastern 20-15 in the third quarter and led by as many as 12 points. In the fourth quarter, the Braves made their only two field-goal attempts and were an impressive 24 of 28 from the foul line.

“Our free-throw shooting was unbelievable tonight,” Rieckers said. “We do that in practice. We shoot well in practice, and we’re trying to translate that into a game, so we hope that continues.”

Booher led all scorers with a season-high 23 points. She was 7 of 9 from the field and 8 of 9 from the line. Also scoring in double figures was Allie Warren with 10 points.

“We knew coming in that it was going to be tough and calls may not go our way, but we all tried to keep our composure and stayed in there,” Booher said. “We did really good, especially getting our big girls the ball inside, making sure that they were working hard and doing good. And we had our outside shooters going. Everybody was just playing together and on their game. We were a team tonight, and it felt good.”

BROWNSTOWN

During the past several years, the Brownstown Central-Austin girls basketball games have be­en competitive.

When the teams met Saturday night at Brownstown for a Mid-Southern Conference showdown, Austin came in ready to play. The Eagles scored the first eight points of the game and never looked back in winning 61-41.

“We just didn’t come out and execute,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “We can have a game plan, and we can tell them what they need to do, but then they have to convert that on the floor. One of the coaches made a comment after the game that we can’t play it for them. We can have them prepared and have the scouting report and know everything about them, but when it comes to stepping on the floor, we have to perform.”

Kaylee Bennett hit a basket at the 5:30 mark of the first quarter to end the Eagles’ 8-0 run. After another Austin score, Brooke Ebbing and Presley Dmitriev made back-to-back baskets for the Braves to make it 10-6. It quickly went to 12-6 before Ebbing converted a three-point play with 20 seconds left to pull within three.

That, however, was the closest the Braves could get.

After Bennett cut the lead to 16-11 in the second quarter, the Eagles hit two consecutive 3-pointers to take a double-digit lead. The Eagles outscored the Braves 20-12 and led 32-21 at halftime.

The Braves struggled getting shots to fall in the third quarter, only making three, while the Eagles had five baskets and two free throws to take a 45-28 lead into the fourth quarter.

Bright spots for the Braves were free-throw shooting (12 of 14) and rebounding (45-38 advantage). Bennett led the Braves with 11 rebounds and 12 points for a double-double.

“We probably outsize them, and that is always good,” Rieckers said. “Our free-throw shooting has been good as of late, and those are things in a close game you need. We have to execute when we are on the floor, and we didn’t do that tonight. We did a lot of standing and didn’t attack the basket, took-off balance shots, and we just have to get better at those things.”

Ebbing and Dmitriev each contributed seven points for the Braves, while the Eagles’ Jessie Davidson tallied a game-high 23, and Brenna Oeffinger added 10.

The Braves fell to 2-1 in the MSC and 3-3 overall. On Tuesday, they will travel to Clarksville for another MSC game.

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BROWNSTOWN

A heads-up play with 1:30 left in Thursday’s Mid-Southern Conference girls basketball battle at Brownstown was key to the host team’s victory.

From there, Salem managed to swish a couple of 3-pointers to keep it interesting, but for the second-straight game, Brownstown’s free-throw shooting was sharp. That on top of solid defense at the end helped the Braves prevail 65-55.

A layup by Krista Baker pulled Salem within 53-49 at 1:35, and the Lions quickly called a timeout and set up in full-court man-to-man pressure. Brownstown’s Kaylee Bennett, however, saw Trinity Booher escape her man, and Booher took the ball to the basket and converted a 3-point play.

“If somebody presses us, if they are going to play us full-court man, we have that where we can go long,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “I said, ‘If they are guarding us man, break long,’ because we have some speed on our team, and they went for it, and it worked out. The next time we set it up, (Salem) put somebody back. So it’s just a heads-up play that they recognized and took advantage of, and I’m proud of it.”

Baker nailed the Lions’ third 3-pointer of the fourth quarter with 55 seconds to go to pull within 58-55. The Braves then buckled down on defense and made free throws. They finished the fourth quarter 15 of 17 from the line, and they were 26 of 32 for the game.

“The first game that we shot free throws, I thought it was a disappointing effort by our part because when we shoot in practice, we are a much better free-throw shooting team,” Rieckers said. “We want to carry that over. I don’t know if the first game was nerves and that kind of thing.

“Certainly tonight was an ugly ballgame, but at the end, the last minute and a half, I thought we showed our composure and did what we needed to do to win the game,” she said.

Baker’s 3 at 3:52 of the first quarter put Salem on top 13-8, but Brownstown scored the final 11 points to take a six-point lead through one quarter. The Braves got the lead to 11 twice in the second quarter before settling for a 33-23 lead at the half.

Brownstown had an 11-9 edge in the fourth quarter before Salem had a 23-21 scoring advantage in the final eight minutes.

Bennett finished with 17 points to go along with nine rebounds and four blocks. Booher was next with 16 points, and Allie Warren scored 14. Brooke Ebbing chipped in eight points, nine rebounds and six blocks.

Salem’s Alex Davidson had a double-double of 17 points and 15 rebounds, while Liz Geralde had 12 points, and Baker added 11 off the bench.

Brownstown improved to 2-0 in the MSC and 3-2 overall and Saturday night will play host to Austin for another MSC contest.

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