BROWNSTOWN — Valiant, relentless and tough.

What more can you say about the Brownstown Central Lady Braves’  rally to take the lead in the fourth quarter after being down 18 in Saturday’s Class 2A Sectional 47 semifinal game against Austin?

The game was tied twice more until the Eagles took the lead. The Braves’ Maria Allen scored at 29 seconds for a three-point game, but on the alternating possession, she was called for an intentional foul. The Eagles’ Michelle Goodin knocked down both free throws, and No. 2 Austin (21-2) was able to survive and end No. 11 Brownstown’s (19-4) season with a 74-69 win.

Austin was characteristic by nailing 3-pointers, converting second-chances and making pushes to get the free-throw line in the first half, while Brownstown was down by double digits for a good part of the half and trailed 42-26 at the break.

In the second half, however, the Bravesshowed some fire, outscoring the visitors 43-32.

But some glaring numbers revolved around fouls and free throws. Brownstown had twice as many (10) fouls in the first half, and the game ended with a 24-14 difference. Plus, the Eagles were 24-for-31 from the stripe, while Brownstown was only 9-for-14.

“I think, in a sense, our girls got frustrated, and in a game like that at the end, you’re wanting to go for the ball,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said of the effect on her team after the intentional foul call.

Four late turnovers also didn’t help, but Brownstown had opportunities when Austin had a couple of costly fumbles.

 
To begin the third quarter, the teams traded baskets and the deficit teetered around 16 points. That was until the Braves went on a 9-4 surge to get within 46-35 at 5:29 on Allen’s steal on the high inbounds pass and layup at the other end. The Braves outscored the Eagles 23-14 in the third, and Kaylee Bennett’s offensive put-back at the buzzer made it a 56-49 game.

Brownstown then surprised Austin by scoring five straight on Katelyn Shoemaker’s baseline drive and pull-up and Jamie Wehmiller’s 3-pointer from the left wing.

After an Austin timeout, Goodin scored before Allen bounced the ball to Taylor Fleetwood for a bucket in the paint at 6:17, and 30 seconds later, Wehmiller drove the baseline for a tie game. Ashley Dowling missed a long-range 3 on the Eagles’ next possession, and Austin missed the front end of a one-and-one twice before Wehmiller had her turn at the line and sank both for a 60-58 lead at 4:14.

Twenty-four seconds later, Chelsea Jones made a layup in transition for a tie game, and at 3:04, Katy McIntosh found Shantel Gray open on the weak side underneath to regain the lead. Shoemaker tied the game with a put-back, but Austin retook the lead at the line and never trailed again.

“To Austin’s credit, they’ve got that senior leadership (four starting) and they have those kids that have the experience and have been in those situations and weathered that,” Rieckers said. “Some of our younger kids, with a couple kids fouling out, they had to grow up tonight, and I couldn’t be more proud of how they came in and what they did for us tonight.”

The Braves struggled getting the ball past midcourt and had five turnovers in the first period, as the Eagles applied just enough pressure. Austin skipped ahead 18-4 behind Goodin’s seven first-quarter points and had a 21-13 lead eight minutes in.

Austin had two runs in the second quarter and went up by 18 twice.

“I don’t think all season we have given up 42 points in a half, and our defense was something that we generally take pride in, and we weren’t getting it done defensively in the first half,” Rieckers said. “We also knew being down 16 points, (getting back in the game) wasn’t going to happen on one single possession. You’re going to have to work every single possession, and I really felt like our girls did that (in the second half). I thought they calmed down a little bit getting into that flow."

Rieckers felt like the scenarios the team ran through in practice of being down 15 points with eight minutes to go would pay off, and it did to some degree. But scrimmaging against your junior varsity squad doesn’t compare to facing the No. 2 team in 2A, she said.

Jones and Goodin led all scorers with 17 points apiece for Austin, while McIntosh scored 15, Dowling 12 and Gray 11.

Shoemaker led the Braves’ charge with 15 points, Wehmiller had 14, Bane 13 and Allen 11.

Having your go-to player, Wehmiller, a senior, out for five games because of an injury was tough, Rieckers said, but she gave a great effort in this one after returning in Friday’s first-round game and scoring only three points.
Austin advances to play Paoli (18-4) at 7:30 p.m. today. Paoli defeated Providence 58-37 in Saturday’s first semifinal game.

Class 2A Sectional 47 at Brownstown

Brownstown to face No. 2 Austin today in semifinals

BROWNSTOWN — In Friday’s first-round sectional game, the Brownstown Central Lady Braves had a tall task at hand.

Eastern (Pekin) had Melissa Lewis at 6 foot and Jocelyn Mousty at 6-foot-2.
Once the Braves figured out how to work around those two, however, they held tight for a 59-50 win.

After a back-and-forth game for the first 14 minutes of play, the Braves pulled together and led 26-22 at halftime.

The game’s first double-digit lead didn’t come until the Braves’ Katelyn Shoemaker made two free throws at 6:07 of the fourth quarter, but the Musketeers didn’t give up. Mousty revved her team up by scoring 15 of her game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter, and Eastern was within five points at 3:33 and at 10 seconds. 

Following Mousty’s miss and offensive put-back made it 55-50, Shoemaker and Sammie Bane made their free throws to close the deal.

Nerves, Braves coach Karla Rieckers said, played a role early in the game.

“When you look at our starting lineup, we start one senior and a lot of underclassmen, and you have a lot of nerves,” Rieckers said. “Even though they’ve been playing varsity action all year, to come out in their big sectional game for our freshmen and some of our other kids stepping up to play more time, they just tended to be a little nervous.

“I thought once they calmed down and seemed to get a little more comfortable, we seemed to be more in the flow of the game.”

Facing a 6-2 girl on the inside may have been a little intimidating at first.

“When you have a 6-2 presence on the inside, that makes you tend to alter your shot, and I felt like we weren’t attacking her the way we needed to,” Rieckers said. “We were hesitant and just didn’t attack. We were afraid of that block. We talked about not adjusting our shot and just going ahead and playing our game.”

The Braves held Mousty to only four points in the first half, and that was all in the first quarter. The difference in the first quarter only rose above one once, and that was when Mousty made two free throws at 14 seconds for a 10-8 lead.

In the second period, Bane’s steal resulted in Maria Allen’s layup, and at 5:32, Bane assisted Allen again on transition for a 15-13 lead. Emily Olesh then made Eastern’s second 3-pointer of the period, and Shelby-Lain Brown later broke an 18-18 game with a trey at 2:38.

Brownstown then answered with an 8-1 run for a 26-22 advantage at halftime.

“I think just going into halftime (with a lead), it builds a little confidence for the girls,” Rieckers said. “I felt like they could kind of take a deep breath and relax a little bit because we were kind of always playing from behind and back and forth. I think that helped our young kids realize that we could come out and do that.”

But in the third quarter, Rieckers didn’t like how her team came out. In fact, neither team was ready, as they combined for an ugly 4-for-35 shooting. The Braves managed to hold a 37-28 lead after three.

The biggest punch of the game was when Taylor Fleetwood nailed a jumper at the free-throw line at 1:49 of the fourth quarter, Eastern missed on the alternating possession and Allen raced down the lane and scored for a 53-46 lead at 1:18.

Bane and Shoemaker carried the Braves with 16 points apiece, while Allen added eight and Fleetwood and Kaylee Bennett seven. Shoemaker completed a double-double with 10 rebounds, and Bane had six assists and five steals.

For Eastern, Mousty finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds and Lewis had 12 points and 12 rebounds.

In tonight’s semifinal game, the Braves (19-3) will take on 2A No. 2 Austin, who improved to 20-2 after a commanding 94-23 win over West Washington in Friday’s first game.

Tonight is a rematch of last year’s sectional title game, in which Austin rallied for the 67-62 victory. The Eagles won the Dec. 12 regular-season contest 62-46.

“They are obviously a very good ball club, and we’re going to have to come out prepared to play,” Rieckers said. “We can’t make the unforced turnovers, and we’re going to have to be able to play the tempo. We need to be a little more patient…we don’t want to take one pass and shoot. We want to work the ball a little bit more and just come out and leave it all on the floor.”

Squad improves to 17-3

SCOTTSBURG — With the groundhog seeing his shadow in the morning, winter will be around a little longer, but the way the humidity was in Meyer Gymnasium on Tuesday night in Scottsburg, one would have thought the opposite.

That must be the reason why the gym is called ‘the pressure cooker,’ but that didn’t hinder the Brownstown Central girls basketball team as it walked away with a 61-55 Mid-Southern Conference win to improve to 7-1 in the MSC, while the Warriorettes finished with a 4-5 record.

“I thought our girls really came out and competed,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “Scottsburg is a basketball team that is definitely improving. They are athletic and I was concerned on how our younger girls would react to that, but they stepped up and did a nice job.”

The Warriorettes took their only lead of the game at 3-0, but Kaylee Bennett knocked down a 3-pointer on the Braves’ next trip down the court for the only tie of the game. Maria Allen and Katelyn Shoemaker hit back-to-back baskets for the Braves to increase their lead.

The lead was trimmed to two points on a couple of occasions, but a Shoemaker basket and a jumper by Hailey Brown with 30 seconds left in the quarter gave the Braves the 13-7 first-quarter lead.

The Braves used their pressure defense in the early going and caused the Warriorettes to turn the ball over eight times in the first quarter and they finished the game with 20.

“Getting off to good starts is the one thing we talk about and focus on when we go through our scouting reports,” Rieckers said. “Getting a good start and setting the tone, and we kind of build off that as the game goes on.”

Shoemaker made her presence known under the basket in the second quarter. She scored 14 of her game-high 26 points in the quarter and she hit 6 of 7 from the free-throw line as the Braves outscored the Warriorettes 19-17 and led 32-24 at the break.

Scottsburg cut the Braves’ lead to 18-16, but Shoemaker made it 20-16 with a layup. After the Warriorettes brought the ball inbounds, Bennett made the steal and Maria Allen put the Braves up by six.

“Shoemaker did a really nice job tonight,” Rieckers said. “When you look at their lineup and see three girls at least 6 feet tall and she comes in with the size she is and has a nice game. You also have to give the other players credit because they gave her some good passes in there that she could finish.”

The Braves opened their biggest lead of the game at 41-28 in the third quarter on a Shoemaker basket, and they ended the third quarter with the 50-42 lead. Both teams tallied 18 points in the quarter.

With 3:15 remaining in the game, Allen knocked down two free throws for the 57-47 lead, but the Warriorettes went on a 6-0 run to cut the margin to 57-53. Bane ended their scoring streak with two free throws to increase their lead to six.

Scottsburg hit two free throws to make it a 59-55 game. Bane then went to the foul line and missed both shots, but Bennett grabbed the offensive rebound and Bane went back to the line and hit 1 of 2.

“We talked about (Darion) Hutchinson was one of the players that we needed to stop,” Rieckers said. “We also knew they had a good 3-point shooter and if we were not prepared for her, then she could step back and hit those shots. Katie Wampler can hurt you on the inside if you don’t defend her. We just focused on man-to-man and doing our job, playing outside defense.”

Allen contributed 13 points and Bane scored 12 in the win.

Hutchinson led Scottsburg with 15 points, Courtney Means had 14 and Wampler added 11.

The Braves held the slim 35-34 rebounding edge, and Taylor Fleetwood had eight to lead the Braves. Symantha Norton and Wampler each had eight boards to lead Scottsburg.

The Braves finished the game 17-for-24 from the foul line and the Warriorettes were 13 of 15. The Warriorettes outscored the Braves 15-4 on bench points.

The Braves, now 17-3, will play host to Paoli on Thursday night.

___________________________________________ 

BROWNSTOWN — The two things that worked against the Brownstown Central Lady Braves in the first half of Thursday’s game flipped their way in the second half.

After allowing the Paoli Rams several second-chance opportunities and not being as strong on defense in the first 16 minutes of the game, the Class 2A No. 10 Lady Braves picked up the defense and pushed inside to gain the advantage in the final 16 minutes for a 55-47 win over the No. 13 team in 2A.

Brownstown sophomore Maria Allen was a force in the third period, scoring nine of the team’s 17 points, including a steal and layup at 3:41 that put the Braves up 32-29 for the first time since midway through the second quarter.

At 1:22, Allen’s off-balance shot from the right swirled around the rim and in and she was fouled and made the free throw, and Jenna Hackman scored off of a Ram turnover in the final 30 seconds for a 39-32 score entering the fourth. The Rams had six of their 13 turnovers of the game in the third period.

In the fourth quarter, Allen’s free throws at 1:08 created the largest deficit of the game, 50-39, and the Braves made their free throws down the stretch, going 7-for-10 from the line, to earn their ninth straight win.

Braves coach Karla Rieckers was glad to see her team turn things around in the second half.

“When we looked at the stats at halftime, we were being outrebounded by 10 rebounds, and when you look at those rebounds, they were converting a lot of those for second-chance points,” Rieckers said. “We talked about the fact that you can’t just stand in front of somebody to rebound. You have to block them out because (the Rams) are strong and have a nice team, so you have to put a body on them to block out.”

That went much better in the second half, as the Braves outrebounded the Rams 15-11.

“We didn’t feel like we were playing with the kind of intensity that we need to and that we can on defense,” Rieckers said of the first half. “We were standing around a little bit more instead of attacking and being right up on them. We were content to sag back a little bit, and that’s not the style we want to play.”

Four of Paoli’s starters scored in the first quarter, and Rieckers called timeout when Olivia Stroud knocked down a 3-pointer at 1:33 for an 11-6 lead. The Braves trailed 13-8 after one.

Brownstown finally hit its stride from the field, shooting 7-for-14 in the second quarter, and the Braves’ Katelyn Shoemaker scored down low off of a nice assist from Kaylee Bennett and Sammie Bane followed with a drive in the lane to get within one at 5:48.

After Jordan Kloss’ offensive put-back, Jenna Hackman made a basket and Shoemaker scored on transition for a one-point lead.

That didn’t last long, however, as Kloss scored inside again, and the Rams maintained the lead the rest of the half. Bennett’s steal and layup as time expired put her team down 24-22 at halftime.

The teams traded 4-0 runs at the beginning of the third period, and then Allen scored four straight, Paoli tied it up and the Braves scored seven straight to hold the lead the rest of the way.

Allen scored a game-high 15 points, including 6-for-9 from the field and 3-for-3 from the foul line. Bane was the only other Brave in double figures, scoring 12 points. Bennett had a solid floor game, leading the team with eight rebounds, and she had four points, four assists two steals and a blocked shot.

Of Allen, Rieckers said, “She’s somebody that has to step up for us, and I told her, ‘You need to attack the basket,’ because I think she had only taken three shots in the first half and we need her to be looking to shoot more, and I was really pleased with how she came out and did that.”

McKinzie Laswell carried the Rams with 12 points, while Kloss scored 11 and Dara Thorlton 10.

Brownstown (18-3) will close its regular season on Saturday with a Mid-Southern Conference makeup game at Corydon Central, and the Rams ended the regular season with a 16-4 record. Next week, both teams will play in the Class 2A Sectional 47 at Brownstown.

Wins moves squad to 16-3

RAMSEY — At halftime of Thursday’s Mid-Southern Conference game at North Harrison, the Brownstown Central Lady Braves found themselves down.

That has been a rare occurrence for the girls this season, but apparently it pushes them even more.

A determined North Harrison squad had a 36-33 lead at halftime, but in the final 20 seconds of the third quarter, Kaylee Bennett’s offensive put-back gave Brownstown a 45-44 lead going into the final period and the Braves maintained for the 68-53 win.

Brownstown had a 35-17 scoring advantage in the second half.

Two things, Braves coach Karla Rieckers said, just weren’t there in the first half: defensive rebounding and defensive intensity.

“When we went in the locker room at halftime, the stat we wrote on the board was that (the Cougars) had I think eight or nine offensive boards, and when they got those offensive boards, they converted those into points,” Rieckers said. “The other thing we said we had to improve on was the defensive intensity. I thought that we were playing back on our heels a little bit, and (the Cougars) have got some quick guards that were getting some good screens and getting out there and getting some nice looks.”

The first quarter went well for the Braves, outscoring the Cougars 24-18 and shooting 11-for-19 from the field. Six of seven Lady Braves scored in the period.

In the second quarter, however, the Cougars doubled up on the Braves. A 3-pointer from Kelsey Brunner at 6:00 put the Cougars within 26-25, Caitlyn Janes tied the game at 29 and 33 on baskets and Amanda Hartley evened the game at 31 on a shot inside.

Cassie Crawford hit a 3 at the top of the key off of a teammate’s screen at 2:25 for the Cougars’ first lead of the game, and the 36-33 score held through to halftime.

In the second half, something the Braves do in practice, Rieckers said, paid off on the floor.

“We set up game scenarios in practice where we put certain scores on the board and we have to play through that,” she said. “We put a score on that makes us down and gives us a certain amount of time, so we try to practice things so when we’re in a game, we take care of those.”

Maria Allen was a huge force for the Braves in the third period, pushing her way inside for three layups, two getting the team within one point and one giving her team the 37-35 lead.

Deidre Book nailed a 3 from the right for a 39-37 lead at 6:08 and Hartley added a free throw before Allen’s three-point play at 3:45 and Hailey Brown’s trey gave the Braves a two-point lead at 1:55. Brunner then drilled a 3 for another lead change until Bennett grabbed a big board and scored inside, giving Brownstown the lead for good.

The Braves went on a 6-0 run to begin the fourth quarter and held tight with 7-for-11 shooting and a 9-for-10 performance from the free-throw line.

North Harrison was within four points at 3:57 on a Brunner 3, but that was the Cougars’ only made field goal on 15 attempts.

“We’ve been able to battle back, so you try to pull from those games and say if we improve our blocking out and improve our defensive intensity, things will take care of themselves,” Rieckers said.

Applying pressure to begin the fourth quarter also paid off.

“We put the press back on because we had some kids that got in some early foul trouble, and when you have limited players, it’s kind of hard to press like that, so we were able to put that on and that always tends to give our girls some confidence and a boost, and I think that played into our advantage,” Rieckers said. “Offensively, we were attacking instead of standing around on the outside.”

The Brownstown starters had a balanced attack, each scoring in double figures. Allen and Shoemaker took game honors with 14 points apiece, while Taylor Fleetwood scored 12, Sammie Bane 11 and Bennett 10. Fleetwood also had a game-high eight boards.

Janes carried the Cougars with 13 points, Hartley came off the bench and scored 11 and had a team-high six rebounds and Crawford had 10 points.

The Braves improved to 16-3 overall and 6-1 in the MSC, and the Cougars are 6-12 overall and 3-4 in the MSC.

Brownstown rounds out the conference schedule with games on Saturday at Corydon Central and on Tuesday at Scottsburg, and then finishing the regular season on Thursday with a non-conference game at home against Paoli.

“Everybody that we play these last four games (including North Harrison) are just going to make us be a better team,” Rieckers said. “People are going to try to knock you off, so we just have to be ready and go out and battle every game. We have three very good teams coming up that we’re going to have to be ready to play.”

 By ZACH SPICER  (The Tribune)

BROWNSTOWN — Sitting comfortably at halftime with a 40-16 lead, the Brownstown Central Lady Braves created even more separation in the third quarter.

In the third, the Braves scored 26 consecutive points, while Southwestern (Shelby) turned the ball over five times and didn’t score until the final 33 seconds of the period. That was the Spartans’ only field goal on nine attempts.

Into the fourth period, the deficit reached a high of 52 points at 7:04 when Jamie Wehmiller scored inside off of an assist from Sammie Bane, and the Braves maintained control for a 78-32 win.

“We didn’t press in the third quarter, so we really just kept pressure on the ball on a half-court sense because we wanted to work on our half-court defense,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “That’s one of the things that we said at halftime was we really wanted to concentrate on the defense and try to hold them to a low average.”

That was easily completed.

The Braves’ pressure caused problems early in the game, too, Rieckers said.

Brownstown scurried to a 17-9 lead after one period of play before holding off some of the pressure in the second quarter.

“We were running a press, and I think the press was causing them some trouble with handling the ball,” Rieckers said. “We thought that if we put some pretty good pressure on them that we would be able to force some turnovers, and that led to a score.”

Brownstown held onto a sizeable lead at the break, and the Braves outscored the Spartans 51-11 in the middle two periods.

The third-quarter run began with Maria Allen’s bucket 13 seconds into the period and ended with Kaylee Bennett’s baseline drive and score with 48 seconds remaining.

During that time, seven of the eight girls on Brownstown’s roster scored, including Allen leading with six.

“Maria did a nice job at Hauser (on Thursday),” Rieckers said. “We are glad that she’s stepping up and doing the things that we know she can do. She can attack the basket, and tonight was the same way. She drove, she stepped out and hit a couple 3s, and that’s what we need her to do to add another person to the scoring column.”

The burst was popped at 33 seconds when Southwestern’s Tayler Britton grabbed a rebound off of her own miss and put it back up, but that put her team down 66-18. Seventeen seconds later, Kellie Garrison added two free throws, and that was all of the Spartans’ scoring in the third.

After turning the ball over on their first possession in the fourth quarter, the Spartans went on to outscore the Braves 12-10, but they were too far down.

Five Lady Braves reached double figures. Allen had a game-high 15 points, including two 3-pointers, Katelyn Shoemaker was next with 14, followed by Bane’s 11 and Wehmiller and Bennett adding 10 apiece.

Southwestern was led by Britton’s six points.

Allen, Wehmiller and Bane each had three steals for the Braves, and Brownstown tallied 15 takeaways, scoring 30 points off of turnovers. The Spartans turned the ball over 21 times to the Braves’ 10.

Brownstown, the No. 11 team in Class 2A, improved to 13-3 and will play host to Brown County (5-9) on Saturday afternoon. The team’s seniors, Wehmiller, Taylor Fleetwood and Catherine Allen, will be recognized that day.

Brownstown comes from behind for season's 13th win

HOPE — A 33-point, no-turnover effort in the third quarter saved the Brownstown Central Lady Braves.

After being down the entire first half of Thursday night’s game at Hauser, the Braves went through five lead changes in the third quarter before building up a 10-point lead heading into the final period.

The Braves found a way to hold onto the lead, despite the scrappy efforts of the Jets, and Brownstown won its 13th game of the season 74-66.

“We’re a team that can score a lot of points in a hurry, and I wasn’t necessarily concerned with the deficit (down 33-28 at halftime) because I didn’t feel like at that point our transition game was going,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “I think to get our transition game going, our defense leads to our offense, so we really needed to pick that up. I thought definitely in the second quarter, we did (pick it up) to fight back, and especially in the third quarter.”

After Taylor Miller’s fifth point of the third quarter got Hauser within one, Brownstown’s Maria Allen came down with a big rebound, hit the shot, drew the foul and converted the three-point play for a 48-44 lead at 3:10.

The Braves went up eight on Allen’s lay-in a minute later, and Jenna Hackman’s drive at the buzzer put her team up 61-51 entering the fourth quarter.

Miller tried to get her team back in the game, getting within 66-62 at 1:57, but the Braves hit their free throws down the stretch and the Jets simply ran out of gas. Miller, a sophomore, finished with a game-high 30 points.

“Miller is an exceptional player for them,” Rieckers said. “I didn’t feel like we were doing a very good job on defense (in the first quarter) and to their credit, they put 19 points on the board and I’m not positive that we’ve given up 19 points in the first quarter in very many games this season.”

Miller scored six points in the first quarter, and her two free throws at 2:33 put the Jets in control 17-4. Claire Dodd added eight points inside in the first, and the Jets flew to a 19-8. The Braves had six turnovers in the first quarter.

To try and make a push, with about three minutes to go in the first half, Rieckers yelled out a diamond press. That created problems for the Jets, and they ended the second quarter with eight turnovers and the Braves turned several of them into points.

Allen assisted Sammie Bane on a 3-pointer at 6:39 and Bane scored off of a steal by Katelyn Shoemaker a minute later to get within 22-17. Shoemaker’s offensive rebound and put-back at 3:47 made it a one-point game, but Hauser’s Aleah Tedder grabbed her own miss and put it back up and Miller then added three free throws for a 29-23 lead. The Jets had a five-point lead at the break.

“The reason we went to the man full-court was we wanted to try to contain Miller,” Rieckers said. “She was going crazy anyway, so I said let’s stick to the press we do best, which is our diamond press, and I didn’t feel like (Hauser) handled it as well and we got some turnovers and finally got us going.”

What it came down to in the second half, Rieckers said, was who had the most energy, and that favored the Braves.

“I think our stamina held out,” she said. “I thought you could see (the Jets) were starting to bend over, they were starting to breathe heavy, and we just kept pushing the ball, pushing the ball. That’s one of the things that has been successful for us this year, and when we got the lead, I felt like it gave our girls some confidence. (The Jets) are a team that if you let them hang around, they are going to have confidence at the end, and we have to go make a statement, and I thought we did that in the third quarter.”

Shoemaker led the Braves with 18 points, followed by Wehmiller’s 16, Allen’s 14 and Bane’s 13. Shoemaker also had a game-high 11 rebounds.

Dodd was the only other Jets player in double figures, scoring 15 points.

After the game, Allen said she and the rest of the team took the coaches’ halftime words to heart.

“They just told us we needed to come out intense and we weren’t playing our best,” Allen said. “We finished a lot better, and we came out intense and we were ready. We just pushed the ball and got the ball up the floor fast.”

That will have to continue as the Braves resume play on Tuesday at home with Southwestern (Shelby).

BROWNSTOWN — Sammie Bane’s defense frustrates opponents.  You can just see it on their face and in their body language.

That’s something Brownstown Central coach Karla Rieckers is seeing more and more each game, much to her liking.
On Saturday, Bane, a junior point guard, limited Charlestown star Amanda Miller to 2-for-7 shooting, and she was 2-for-5 from the free-throw line, for only six points, while Bane led her team with 10 points in the Lady Braves’ 39-24 Mid-Southern Conference win.

“Miller is their go-to player and certainly they look to get (the ball) to her,” Rieckers said. “She’s the type of player that wants to drive, wants to get to the free-throw line, but can also step out and shoot the 3. I think for most games she’s averaging getting to the free-throw line a little over 10 times per game, and in the second half Sammie held her scoreless.

“I can’t say enough about how well Sammie plays on defense. She thrives on that. She likes to get out and kind of irritate the other people, and she just takes pride in that. She gets our toughest assignment game in and game out and deservingly so because of the way she plays defense.”

It wasn’t just Bane doing the work defensively. The Pirates were rarely seen penetrating the lane, and they finished the game with 21 turnovers to the Braves’ 15. Charlestown made only six field goals in the game, and Brownstown’s 12 field goals made up for its 14-for-26 showing at the line.

“When (Bane) needed to, she cut off the drives and she would adjust and step back off so she wouldn’t get that foul,” Rieckers said. “At the same time, if her girl got by her, our post player, Taylor Fleetwood, was right there with good help-side defense.”

The game was tied at 7 after one slow-going quarter of play. Two of the Pirates’ seven turnovers were converted into Brownstown layups.

In the second quarter, Charlestown’s Brittany Bennison added two free throws, followed by Alicia Zollman’s wide-open basket in the paint, giving the Pirates a 13-10 lead.

Bane then showed that her game wasn’t limited to defense by sinking a 3-pointer from the top of the key off of an assist from Jenna Hackman at 3:32 and scoring off of a turnover at 2:04 for a 17-13 lead. The Braves led 21-14 at halftime.

“I thought offensively we started off a little rusty,” Rieckers said. “That’s a credit to their defense because they are a team that really focuses on good defense and they hold their teams to low-scoring games, and we just couldn’t seem to find the basket for a while. But I thought defensively we stepped up and played a nice game considering that we didn’t have school on Thursday and came in (Friday) and practiced for a little while.”

Once the Braves gained the lead in the second quarter, they never trailed again. The Pirates hit only three field goals on 18 attempts in the second half. The Braves had twice as many field goals, and their first double-digit lead came on Bane’s free throws at 2:05 of the third period.

Heading into the fourth quarter, the Braves led 28-17, and their advantage bubbled to as many as 17 in the final minute of the game on a free throw by Hackman.

Bane’s 10 points was the game high, while Katelyn Shoemaker scored eight and Jamie Wehmiller seven. Fleetwood blocked two shots, scored four points and had a game-high nine rebounds.

For the Pirates, Miller and Bennison each finished with six points.

Brownstown (11-3) improves to 5-1 in the MSC, while Charlestown (8-6) falls to 3-2.

“We believe if we want to have a successful second half of the season that our defensive game needed to improve from the first half,” Rieckers said. “We know we can get out and run, we can get out in transition, but we really wanted to focus on limiting our opponents to what they are going to score. I keep talking about having pride in your defense, and that’s one of the things that I think the girls are stepping up and starting to understand.”

Box score

At Brownstown
Charlestown 7 7 3 7—24
Brownstown 7 14 7 11—39

Brownstown Central (11-3): Maria Allen 1-4 1-2 3, Jamie Wehmiller 3-8 1-4 7, Sammie Bane 3-10 3-4 10, Katelyn Shoemaker 3-6 2-4 8, Taylor Fleetwood 1-3 2-2 4, Hailey Brown 0-6 0-0 0, Kaylee Bennett 1-6 3-4 5, Jenna Hackman 0-4 2-6 2, Kourtney Settle 0-1 0-0 0, Kristen Mellencamp 0-0 0-0 0, totals 12-48 14-26 39

BLOOMFIELD — Whenever the Brownstown Central Lady Braves made a move on Bloomington North, the Cougars responded.

After a close game throughout the first half on Wednesday, the Cougars made a push in the third quarter and outscored the Braves 21-17 in the fourth to take the 54-42 win and advance to the championship game of the Eastern Greene Toby Yoho Classic.

There, the Cougars improved to 13-1 after a 63-39 victory over Forest Park.

Bloomington North 54, Brownstown Central 42

Despite a shaky start by both teams, including five first-quarter turnovers by Brownstown, the Braves led 9-8 after one.

In the second quarter, each team created turnovers for the other, combining for 10. The Braves held a three-point lead on 2-point baskets by Jamie Wehmiller and Katelyn Shoemaker and a 3-pointer by Hailey Brown, but the Cougars regained the lead on Maureen Hirt’s field goal at 1:29.

Shoemaker scored in transition, but the Braves picked up their seventh team foul at 28 seconds, sending Hirt to the line. She connected on both, and the Cougars took a 21-20 lead into the locker room.

“I thought we were doing a nice job defensively, what we needed to do,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “We did let the press affect us a time or two there, but we just needed to be patient and stay out of the corners and look for the open person. Overall, considering it was the third game in two days, I thought we came out pretty well.”

In the third quarter, the Braves had five more turnovers and were limited to 1-for-12 shooting from the floor. Digging from behind, they began to foul, collecting seven in the quarter.

Bloomington scored nine straight points, including a three-point play by Kaity Hoy at 4:37 for a 30-23 lead, and the Cougars had the 33-25 advantage at the end of three.

Brownstown had a run of its own in the fourth quarter, scoring seven consecutive points, capped off with Brown’s trey at 5:05 making it a 36-32 ballgame.

It didn’t take long, however, for the Cougars to go on another 7-0 run for an 11-point lead.

“I thought that on offense, we weren’t quite as patient as what we needed to be,” Rieckers said. “Once we broke the press, when you get behind, you kind of get in that hurry mode and we take one pass and a shot at the time when we didn’t need to, when we still had the time that we could have worked our offense and maybe got a little better look.”

Hoy earned game honors with 16 points, while Pendah Jallow scored 15 and Hirt 11.

For the Braves, Shoemaker led with 10 and Sammie Bane had nine.

Brownstown Central 68, Eastern Greene 40

The third-place game allowed the Braves to do what they do best.

From Wehmiller and Bane driving hard to the basket to everyone pulling down rebounds, Brownstown rolled to a 68-40 win over Eastern Greene.

The Braves scored the first 10 points of the game and held a 31-17 lead at halftime.

Bane had 12 of her game-high 18 points in the first half and Wehmiller had seven of her 17 points.

Shoemaker also reached double digits for the Braves, shooting 5-for-5 from the field in the second half and finishing the game with 16 points.

The Braves built up a 53-27 lead going into the fourth quarter after Bane’s steal at 29 seconds.

Brownstown’s largest lead was 31 Bane’s bucket at 5:47 of the fourth. The Braves shot 17-for-27 from the field in the second half, compared to the Thunderbirds’ 7-for-24.

Shoemaker and Wehmiller were named to the all-tournament team.

“It’s a great honor for Katelyn and Jamie and certainly well-deserved, but at the same time, we also have so many other players that do lots of things for us as well,” Rieckers said. “If you look at what Sammie Bane did defensively, she gets the hardest assignment (point guard) every game and she does a nice job.”

Brittany Igel led the Thunderbirds with 15 points.

Rieckers said playing in the holiday tournament will benefit her team as it enters the second half of the season. The Braves (10-3) now will turn their efforts toward their next game, on Jan. 7 with South Decatur.

“I really feel like, over the last two days, our team has improved, especially defensively,” she said. “In the first half of the season, I didn’t think our defense was as sharp as it should be, but over the last two days, I’ve been pleased with how we’ve responded defensively, and we just need to keep building on that.”

Brownstown girls rout Centerville, Owen Valley in tournament play

BLOOMFIELD — The Brownstown Central Lady Braves decided to keep their game in the post, and what a good idea that was.

In Tuesday’s games of the Eastern Greene Toby Yoho Classic, the Braves made only one 3-pointer through two games, but that was all right since they were cruising their way inside.

Brownstown Central 57, Owen Valley 41

Brownstown and Owen Valley remained on even terms for three quarters, with the Braves leading 13-12 after one, the Patriots having the 24-21 advantage at halftime and Brownstown taking a 38-37 lead into the final period.

What set the Braves apart in the fourth quarter was opening with 12 consecutive points, forcing the Patriots into a full timeout.

The run began with Maria Allen’s bank shot inside at 6:58 and ended with Jamie Wehmiller’s shot in the post on an assist from Allen at 2:56.

“It gave us some motivation to keep going and to just keep pushing because we knew we could do it,” Braves freshman Kaylee Bennett said of her team’s run. “I feel like we pushed the ball a lot better than we have lately, and we hustled a lot more.”

Braves coach Karla Rieckers said the late burst was important.

“I felt like we were attacking the basket better, we were looking to push the ball up the floor, which we thought they were showing a little bit of fatigue,” Rieckers said. “We definitely wanted to keep them on their heels, keep pushing them up the floor, and I thought we did a really nice job of that.”

Owen Valley’s Kaitlin Sweatman put an end to the Braves’ streak with an and-one play, but didn’t connect on the free throw.

That, however, was the Patriots’ only field goal of the quarter, as they shot 2-for-15 from the field and 7-for-35 in the half.

In the first half, neither team could get a shot spot on. The teams combined for 17-for-60 from the floor and 11-for-23 from the foul line.

“I think we did come out a little bit sluggish,” Rieckers said. “That happens when you have a long bus ride, it’s a morning game, we’ve been off for a week, getting back into the routine of playing. It’s a little bit of a different atmosphere when you’re playing in a holiday tournament because I think the nerves are a little different.”

It was the first holiday tournament for the Braves, but Rieckers was glad to see her team come out like it did in the second half.

“We calmed down, we got back to the things that we do best and I think our conditioning and our stamina really showed in that game,” she said.

Sammie Bane came up big for the Braves with 19 points, and she was one of three Braves with seven rebounds. Bennett and Katelyn Shoemaker also had seven rebounds, but Wehmiller led the team with 10. Shoemaker also added 15 points.

Brownstown Central 66, Centerville 46

Centerville scored the first five points of its game with Brownstown, but the Braves quickly fired back and outscored the Bulldogs 21-5 the rest of the first quarter.

Bane made all three of her shots in the lane and a free throw, while Wehmiller nailed a 3-pointer, a 2-pointer and a free throw, Shoemaker scored four points and Taylor Fleetwood and Hailey Brown each scored a bucket.

The game settled down some in the second quarter, but it ended up belonging to the Braves. Brownstown’s lead grew to 18 on baskets by Jenna Hackman and Shoemaker, and Centerville was held to 1-for-15 from the floor. The Braves led 34-18 at halftime.

“We kind of focused our defense more on them and used help-side a lot more than we have been in the past games,” Bennett said.

Rebounds were the Braves’ forte all day, as they outrebounded Owen Valley 47-31 and Centerville 40-27. Bennett tallied 11 rebounds in the Centerville game and finished with six points.

The Bulldogs managed to outscore the Braves 11-9 in the third quarter, as Brownstown made only one field goal on 14 attempts and Centerville made three field goals. But the Braves held a 43-29 lead entering the fourth.

That’s when both teams made their final hurrah, each making seven field goals, but playing from behind, the Bulldogs began fouling and couldn’t break past the double-digit deficit.

The Braves’ lead bubbled to as much as 24 on Allen’s two free throws at 3:23. The team was 9-for-10 from the line in the fourth.

“We weren’t quite as sharp as what we needed to be in the second half,” Rieckers said. “I think anytime you get a lead like that and it’s your second game of the day, your legs start to get a little tired. It’s just one of those learning experiences for our girls, and being in a tournament like this is only going to make us better.”

All eight Braves scored, with Wehmiller leading with 18 and Bane following with 14. Shoemaker and Fleetwood each had nine points.

“It’s nice to have that balanced scoring and balanced rebounding,” Rieckers said. “It’s a total team effort. It’s everybody contributing one way or another.”

Lindsay Ivey was Centerville’s top scorer with 18 points and Lauren Minhinnett had 14, including two 3-pointers apiece.

The Braves (9-2) will have their hands full today, when they play Bloomington North (11-1), which also won both of its pool play games on Tuesday.

That game will begin at 1 p.m., and the winner of that game will play for the championship at 7 p.m. and the loser will play for third place at 5 p.m.

“We can’t have any letdowns whenever you’re playing a team of that caliber,” Rieckers said.

Bennett added, “I think we just need to get to the point where we are strong in every single quarter so that we just take off from there.”

Eastern Greene 57, Cloverdale 36

Forest Park 65, Hauser 52

Indianapolis Arlington 51, Indianapolis Bishop Chatard 49, OT

Eastern Greene 46, South Knox 42

Owen Valley 62, Centerville 40

Forest Park 62, Edgewood 47

Bloomington North 51, Indianapolis Bishop Chatard 44

South Knox 50, Cloverdale 25

Edgewood 67, Hauser 47

Bloomington North 55, Indianapolis Arlington 33

WEDNESDAY GAMES:

Championship bracket games at high school
Game 1: 11 a.m. – Eastern Greene vs. Forest Park
Game 2: 1 p.m. – Brownstown Central vs. Bloomington North
Game 3: 5 p.m. – Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser
Game 4: 7 p.m. – Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner

Fifth-place bracket games at middle school
Game 1: 11 a.m. – South Knox vs. Edgewood
Game 2: 1 p.m. – Owen Valley vs. Indianapolis Arlington
Game 3: 5 p.m. – Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser
Game 4: 7 p.m. – Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner

Ninth-place bracket games at elementary school
Game 1: 11 a.m. – Cloverdale vs. Hauser
Game 2: 1 p.m. – Centerville vs. Indianapolis Bishop Chatard
Game 3: 5 p.m. – Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser
Game 4: 7 p.m. – Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner

Lady Braves reach championship bracket

 By ARV KOONTZ

NORTH VERNON — Coach Karla Rieckers says she has been concerned about how well her Brownstown Central basketball team has shot free throws in recent games.

On Tuesday night, the Braves had one of their better nights of the season at the line, making 15 of 18 in the fourth period and 20 of 25 for the game, in a 67-61 win at Jennings County.

“Free-throw shooting has been a concern for us over the last few games,” Rieckers said. “It is something, as a team in games, we haven’t been shooting very well, so we tried to come back and focus on that and we talked about the aspect that there are going to be games where that’s where games are going to be decided, on the free-throw line.
“Mentally, we have to be prepared and be able to knock down the free throws. That was one of the first things all of the girls said in the locker room, that free-throw shooting tonight was much better, so we’re glad that they recognized that, and that is something we’ll continue to work on.”

The Braves held a 50-36 lead entering the final period, and 15 of their 17 points in the fourth came on free throws.

Sammie Bane made all six of hers in the quarter, Maria Allen missed her first and then made five straight and Jamie Wehmiller and Jenna Hackman made two each.

A pair of free throws by Allen gave the Braves a 57-43 lead with 5:09 remaining before the Panthers used a 7-0 run to close to 57-50 on a 3-pointer by Jenny Royce with 2:05 remaining.

A rebound basket by Allie Ponsler cut the difference to 59-54 with 2 minutes remaining before Wehmiller hit an 8-foot shot from the side to give the visitors a 61-54 cushion at 1:12. The closest the Panthers could get after that was five points.

Wehmiller and Bane scored seven points apiece in the first quarter to help the Braves move on top 21-11.

The Panthers switched from a 2-1-2 zone in the first period to a 1-3-1 at the start of the second.

“When they went to the 1-3-1, we wanted to get the ball in the middle,” Rieckers said. “Obviously, on a zone, you have to attack the middle, and that’s one of the things we did a better job of in the third quarter. Sometimes when a team plays a zone, we stand around and don’t attack the gaps the way we need to or attack the middle and pass the ball in and cause that movement for them on that zone. That is one of the things we continue to work for, but all in all, it was a good win.”

The Braves led 30-27 at the half.

Katelyn Shoemaker became a force inside for the Braves in the third period, making four baskets and pulling down five rebounds.

Panthers coach Jason Longmeier credited Shoemaker’s rebounding as the difference in the game.

“My biggest concern coming into tonight was Shoemaker on the boards, and I think that’s where the game was lost,” he said. “She had seven offensive rebounds and I think five of them turned into buckets.”

Jennings made 1 of 6 shots from the floor and had nine turnovers in the third period.

“We’ve had one of those (cold quarters) each game,” Longmeier said. “I thought we really started slow in the first quarter and we started slow in the third quarter. To their credit, Brownstown came out in the second half and came up and pressured our wings more than they had been, and we didn’t respond well in the first 4 or 5 minutes of the half with them doing that, so it was an adjustment on their part. We did some things late in the third quarter to kind of counteract that, and in the fourth quarter we took advantage of what it was they were trying to do.”

Rieckers said, “At halftime, one of the things we talked about was coming out and playing with intensity and playing with defensive pressure. As good as I thought it was in the third quarter, I thought in the fourth quarter we got a little lax and were standing around.  We have a situation where we think we have a game in hand and instead of really just putting a team away, we kind of let them back into the game. Fortunately, we’ve been able to sustain that all the time, and I think that’s a sign of a good team that can withstand the runs of the other team.”

Both teams had three players in double figures. Wehmiller topped the Braves with 17 and Bane and Shoemaker added 15 each.

“Balanced scoring is something our players have done all year,” Rieckers said. “On any given night, we have a nice eight-player rotation. Anybody can step up and play. Kaylee Bennett didn’t play as much tonight because she’s been battling the flu and has been sick to her stomach. We didn’t want to force it if we didn’t have to have her out there.”

Royce topped the Panthers with 19, Summer Sanders added 15 and Brooke Elmore added 14 to go along with 11 rebounds.

The Panthers (1-8) were without senior Tori Magner, who was ill.

The Braves (7-2) have won three in a row and will play in the Eastern Greene Tournament Dec. 29-30.

AUSTIN — Except for about five minutes in the third quarter of Saturday night’s Mid-Southern Conference game at Austin, the Brownstown Central Lady Braves were out of sync.

A big statistic in the game was Austin going 17 of 27 at the free-throw line, while Brownstown was 4 of 8.

That pretty much was the game right there, and Class 2A No. 2 Austin (7-0) took the 62-46 victory to stand at the top of the MSC at 4-0. The 2A No. 13 Braves (4-2) fall from second to third with a 2-1 MSC record.

“I don’t know that we ever got in a kind of rhythm that we wanted to be in,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “We missed a lot of shots under the basket, around the basket.”

By halftime, Rieckers said her team had missed 17 shots in the lane, and for the game, the Braves shot 28 percent from the field. That’s compared to the Eagles’ 36 percent.

“A little bit of that is the type of play that you’re playing against,” she said, “but we’ve got to be able to step up and we have to knock those shots down, and typically we do. If you give us a few of those baskets, it builds the confidence in the girls a little bit.”

After two quarters of play, each team made 10 field goals, but the Braves missed 27 shots and the Eagles missed 15.

The Braves were within two on Katelyn Shoemaker’s second field goal of the first quarter at 2:50, but the Eagles then scored five straight for a 17-10 lead after one.

Michelle Goodin had 11 of her 16 first-half points in the second quarter, with her three-point play at 53 seconds making the score 30-22, and that would carry through to the buzzer.

The Braves made it an interesting game in the third quarter when Shoemaker scored four points and Hailey Brown knocked down a 3-pointer and two free throws, and Brownstown was within 34-33 at 3:23.

Austin shot 4-for-18 from the field and 5-for-11 from the free-throw line in the third, but the Eagles closed out on a 9-2 run to lead 43-35 heading into the fourth.

Austin’s pressure in the fourth quarter created back-to-back steals and lay-ins, building up a lead of 12 at 6:51. Chelsea Jones nailed a 3-pointer at the top of the key for a 52-37 score at 4:41, and Katy McIntosh put the Eagles up 14 twice on separate visits to the free-throw line.

“They are a fast-paced team that likes to break and get the ball down the floor,” Rieckers said of Austin. “We played Thursday night, and I didn’t really feel like we had the legs to press the way we wanted to, to be able to keep up with them. It might have had something to do with the shots in the lane, too, but you have to come prepared to play every night.

“We lost our man a couple times there. They got the rebound and threw long, and we knew that they threw the outlet pass. We didn’t have people getting back and making that reaction, and it’s just realizing the things that they are doing and having to take those opportunities away for them.”

Shoemaker tallied 16 points and six rebounds for the Braves, while Bane scored 10 points. Taylor Fleetwood led all rebounders with 11.

Goodin took game honors with 20 points, Jones had 14 and eight of McIntosh’s 12 points were from the line.

The Braves have two more MSC games this week, playing host to Clarksville (3-3, 0-1) on Tuesday and Silver Creek (5-4, 2-2) on Saturday.

“We’re a young ball club and we’re continuing to learn, and that’s the thing that I like,” Rieckers said. “When I went in the locker room, that’s what the kids were talking about, what we needed to do better to improve. Instead of making excuses for what happened, they are talking about how we can get better.”

At Austin

Brownstown 10 12 13 11—46
Austin 17 13 13 19—62

Brownstown Central (4-2): Maria Allen 1-5 0-0 2, Jamie Wehmiller 3-12 0-1 7, Sammie Bane 4-12 0-0 10, Katelyn Shoemaker 7-13 2-2 16, Taylor Fleetwood 2-4 0-0 4, Hailey Brown 1-10 2-2 5, Kaylee Bennett 1-9 0-3 2, Jenna Hackman 0-1 0-0 0, Kourtney Settle 0-0 0-0 0, Megan Quade 0-0 0-0 0, totals 19-66 4-8 46

Austin (7-0): Chelsea Jones 6-15 0-1 14, Katy McIntosh 2-10 8-11 12, Shantel Gray 3-8 1-2 7, Michelle Goodin 7-13 4-8 20, Ashley Dowling 2-7 4-4 9, Brooke Stollings 0-1 0-0 0, Kamry Howard 0-1 0-0 0, Samantha Wooten 0-0 0-1 0, totals 20-55 17-27 62

3-point goals: Brownstown Central (Bane 2, Brown, Wehmiller), Austin (Jones 2, Goodin 2, Dowling)

Rebounds: Brownstown Central 39 (Fleetwood 11, Wehmiller 8, Shoemaker 6), Austin 27 (Dowling 7, McIntosh 7)

Turnovers: Brownstown Central 17, Austin 10

Junior varsity

BROWNSTOWN — Coach Karla Rieckers said she told her Brownstown Central team in the locker room prior to Tuesday night’s game against Clarksville that she wanted the Lady Braves to get off to a good start.

“That’s one of the things we talked about,” Rieckers said. “We didn’t feel that Saturday night that we got a very good start with our Austin game. We wanted to get back to playing with intensity and playing hard. I felt like we really did that tonight.”

Brownstown opened up with a 22-8 lead at the end of one quarter and coasted to a 93-26 Mid-Southern Conference win.

The Braves held an 8-4 lead after three minutes when Jamie Wehmiller took matters into her own hands. She drilled a 3-point shot from the right corner at 4:10 and then converted three-point plays at 2:54 and 2:18 for an 18-4 score.

Brownstown took advantage of 14 turnovers by the Generals in the opening period and turned several of those into layups to pull away to a 22-8 lead. Katelyn Shoemaker, Taylor Fleetwood, Sammie Bane and Maria Allen had layups in the opening period, plus Wehmiller scored twice inside.

“One of the things we want our press to do is cause the turnovers so we can get the ball down the floor and get those baskets,” Rieckers said.

The Braves continued to execute plays at both ends of the court at the beginning of the second period, with Wehmiller opening the scoring with a 3-pointer from the left wing at the 7:45 mark.

Bane, Jenna Hackman and Hailey Brown also scored early in the second quarter when the Braves went on a 13-0 run to lead 35-8  before Brittany Windell scored for the Generals with 4:35 left in the quarter.

The Braves made 10 of 16 shots from the floor in the period and held the Generals to 2 of 16 shooting. Shoemaker made all three of her field goals and had eight points in the period, and the Braves held a 45-14 cushion at the half.

Six different Braves scored in the third period, topped by Shoemaker with six, Bane with four and Hackman with a three-point play. The Braves outscored the Generals 22-7 in the third.

Allen and Kaley Wilkerson both scored a pair of baskets in the fourth quarter when nine Braves scored.

Rieckers was glad she had an opportunity to play 10 players, and all of them scored.

“We have a lot of young players in our program from top to bottom,” Rieckers said. “If you look, we have three seniors on our roster and just two juniors. We have a lot of sophomores and freshmen, and it’s good for them to be able to step in and get that varsity experience.”

Only two of the seniors are able to play, as Catherine Allen suffered a season-ending injury before the season began.

This was Brownstown’s highest point total since the Braves scored 83 against the Generals last season. The Braves scored at least 22 points in every period.

Brownstown had four players in double figures for the third time this season, topped by Shoemaker with 20 points. Wehmiller had 19, while Bane and Kaylee Bennett both had 10 and Hackman finished with nine.

The Braves made 38 of 82 shots form the floor to 9 of 50 for the Generals.

“When the other team is playing zone, sometimes we have a tendency to stand around a little bit, but we were moving the ball,” Rieckers said. “We looked inside more against the zone than what we typically do. Sometimes we get in a tendency to pass the ball around the outside and not try to hit that person in the middle. I thought we did a better job of that tonight.”

The Braves had 17 assists, with Wehmiller handing out four and Bennett and Fleetwood three each.

The Braves finished with eight turnovers to 33 for the Generals.

Cassandra Mulford topped the Generals with nine points.

The Braves held a 40-25 advantage in rebounds. Bennett topped the Braves with nine and Wilkerson had six.

Brownstown improved to 5-2 overall and 3-1 in the MSC and will be home to Silver Creek on Saturday with the junior varsity starting at noon.

SALEM — The Brownstown Central Lady Braves converted beautifully on transition in Thursday’s Mid-Southern Conference game at Salem.

That began in the first quarter, with the Braves scoring 11 of their 23 points either off of a Salem miss or turnover.

The closest the Lions got the rest of the way was 10 points, and the Braves improved their MSC record to 2-0 after a 71-53 victory.

“We like to come in and kind of intimidate them and put them away,” Braves senior center Taylor Fleetwood said. “Intensity was real good in the first quarter, I thought. Our transition was probably the best.”

Fleetwood scored four points in the first quarter off of passes to the inside from Katelyn Shoemaker and Jenna Hackman, with the latter bucket making it a 17-10 game at 1:47. Then, a 7-0 run by the Braves pushed the lead into double digits, and it was 23-13 after one.

“We wanted to come out with a level of intensity and just make a statement early,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “We have some very athletic girls that can get up and down the floor, and that kind of plays into that they enjoy playing that style, that’s what they want to do. We definitely like playing the transition game, and it just gets us more motivated.”

Brownstown’s defensive pressure caused Salem to fumble the ball seven times in the first quarter, and the Lions didn’t do much better in the second.

“That’s what we want, our press to cause the turnovers,” Rieckers said. “We want to get that quick basket and get into that transition.”

The Braves’ Hailey Brown sank two 3-pointers in the final three minutes of the half, and Salem’s 5-11 Barbi Richardson grabbed an offensive rebound off of a teammate’s missed shot in the final seconds for a 36-21 score at halftime.

“We’ve had a lot of big (players to defend), and it was all guards at the beginning of the season,” Fleetwood said. Salem had three players at 5-10 or 5-11. “Now, it’s all big and it’s really hard to work in there, but we’re actually doing a pretty good job. We need to work on our defense and our blocking out a lot more, but we’re going to work on that.”

Brownstown’s lead bubbled to 18 in the third quarter on baskets by Jamie Wehmiller at 2:37 and Shoemaker at 1:49. Salem, however, didn’t back down, with Megan Smith hitting back-to-back 3-pointers within 15 seconds to cut the deficit to 49-37.

Brown’s free throw and Fleetwood’s field goal in the final minute of the third made it 52-37.

“I thought their post players were kind of scoring on us underneath, so we switched to a 2-3, and when we switched to a 2-3, Smith stepped out and hit two really nice 3s,” Rieckers said of why she called a timeout at 1:11. “I told the girls 2-3 is not working, we need to go back to what we do best, and that’s man-to-man defense.”

Seven Lady Braves scored in the fourth quarter, and the largest lead of the game came on Hackman’s consecutive baskets inside, giving her team a 68-47 advantage.

Wehmiller had a game-high 17 points, while Sammie Bane and Kaylee Bennett scored 10 points apiece. Bane also had six assists, five rebounds and two steals.

Salem was led by Ashley Malloy’s 13 points, followed by Richardson’s 12 and Kaitlyn Lamb’s 10.

“I think our players are very unselfish,” Rieckers said. “They look for the open man, they do a nice job of reversing the ball and we have a lot of people that are scoring threats. Everybody can step up and score.”

That’s what it’s going to take as Brownstown travels to Austin (6-0, 3-0) on Saturday for another MSC matchup. It will be the third of five straight conference games for the Braves (4-1, 2-0).

“Anytime you get a conference win, you’re proud of that,” Rieckers said. “Austin’s a very nice ball club, and they have a lot of players that can shoot the ball, a lot of players that can score. We need to make sure we know where those players are at, we’ve got to play good defense, we’ve got to block out and we just have to stay with our game plan.”

Fleetwood and the rest of the team are pacing themselves toward an MSC title.

“Conference is our goal right now,” Fleetwood said, “and we’re taking it one step at a time so we can reach that goal.”

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Free throws seal win for Seymour

BROWNSTOWN — The Seymour Lady Owls made 7 of 10 free throws in the final 51 seconds of Thursday night’s battle at Brownstown Central to secure a 71-64 win.

The Owls were clinging to a 64-62 lead with 51 seconds remaining when Bridgette Jones stepped to the line and made one free throw. She missed the second, but managed to grab the rebound.

Amanda Moore made three free throws, the latter with 29 seconds left, to boost Seymour’s lead to 68-62.

Brownstown’s Sammie Bane rebounded a teammate’s missed shot and scored with 23 seconds left to make it a 68-64 game.

Moore then added a pair of free throws and Brianna Gillaspy added one more in the closing seconds as the Owls snapped a two-game losing streak to increase their record to 3-2.

“Amanda got mad late in the game,” Seymour coach Beth DeVinney said. “She didn’t get a foul called. She drove in there and got hammered. She took over and was going to will us to win, and she did.”

Moore captured game honors with 31 points, while Meredith Adams scored 20 and Erin Murphy added 12. The totals for Moore and Adams were career highs.

“Wow,” DeVinney said of Adams, who was 9-for-15 from the floor and topped the Owls in rebounds with eight. “She stepped up huge for us on the inside. We’ve been trying to work a little bit on our post presence. She is really starting to come around and get in the flow of things. Better late than never, like we say.
“She’s so tall and long ,and it is hard to defend her shot. If she can get a half step on you, she is going to lay it up high on the board. We’ve been working on that, and she’s doing a good job and she needs to keep getting better.”

Of her shooting, Adams said, “It was a high screen, and I controlled the layup. They were just going in. They had a mismatch on me, so I could shoot over the top. Amanda and me were going back and forth and we were just laughing because if they were going to guard me, I would get it out to her and she was on fire on the 3-point shots. We had a good shooting game.”

Adams said beating the Braves “was amazing. I loved it. Last time we played on this floor, it was a battle for us with a lot of fouls called, and there were a lot of fouls called this time, but we just came out on top and outplayed them tonight.”

Seymour held a 14-11 lead at the end of the first period before Adams and Moore heated up on the offensive end in the second period.

Moore was hot from the outside, making three 3-pointers and scoring 11 points in the quarter, while Adams made her first four shots of the quarter for eight points in the period.

“Amanda’s been in kind of a slump the first four games and was kind of worried about her shooting, and the last couple days we’ve kind of backed off and not really said a whole lot about it,” DeVinney said. “We were bound to have a good shooting night and hopefully it started tonight.”

The Owls finished with 16 of 52 from the floor.

“We forced some shots down here on offense that we shouldn’t have taken,” DeVinney said. “We were up 16  (49-33) and we were driving in the lane and forcing shots. We’ve just got to relax. Our kids are pressing to score. We’re a work in progress.
“Give (Brownstown) credit. They played a really hard game. (Jamie) Wehmiller went off. She did a really nice job for them. She took over. She does what a senior should do, what Meredith did.”

Brownstown’s Katelyn Shoemaker dropped in a layup with 4:45 remaining in the half to cut Seymour’s lead to 23-22.

Adams then scored a pair of baskets inside and Moore drained a pair of 3-pointers, giving Seymour a 35-22 lead with 2:30 left in the half.

Shoemaker finally made a short jump shot with 1:40 on the clock to set the score at 35-24. She had eight points in the period.

Wehmiller closed the half with back-to-back baskets for the Braves for a 37-28 score at intermission.

The Braves were hot in the second period, making 8 of 9 shots from the floor, but they turned the ball over seven times. Seymour didn’t have any turnovers in the quarter.

“I thought we played with pretty good intensity,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “We tended to lose a few people on defense now and then, and we can’t do that against a good team. They’re going to step out, and they’re definitely going to hurt you. They have so many people they can go to.
“Probably what I’m most proud of as a team is our effort coming back because when we were down by 15, we could have said this is it and we could have been done, and we came fighting back and didn’t give up.
“The thing that was disappointing was we had more turnovers (20) than we have typically had in a game. Part of that is a credit to Seymour. They pressure the ball a lot. They come after you, and the first two games we played this season, I thought we handled the turnovers pretty well. We have to be stronger with the ball. We had kids out there at different times that are still pretty young and learning how to adjust and take that pressure.”

Seymour made 21 of 31 free throws, while the Braves hit 11 of 18.

“Free throws are something we’ve got to step up and do a better job of,” Rieckers said.

Wehmiller topped the Braves with 15 points, Shoemaker added 14 and Kaylee Bennett 11.

“The crowd was into it,” Wehmiller said. “It was definitely an intense game. It was a lot fun.”

Wehmiller had been bothered by a hip injury and said she felt like this was her best game of the season.

“This is the first game I’ve really been back,” she said. “This definitely helps us for the conference and sectional and things to come. We definitely played a lot better as a team.”

Brownstown (2-1) will be home to Eastern (Pekin) on Saturday afternoon for a Mid-Southern Conference game, and Seymour will travel to Jennings County on Tuesday night for a Hoosier Hills Conference matchup.

CLARKSVILLE — By the end of the first quarter of Friday’s game at Providence, the Brownstown Central Lady Braves had 30 points and had all eight players in the scoring column.

The Braves held a double-digit lead until the Pioneers cut it to nine at the end of the third quarter, but the Braves responded well and returned home with an 80-65 win to improve to 2-0.

“Offensively, you couldn’t really ask for a better effort,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said.

Jamie Wehmiller, Hailey Brown, Sammie Bane and Jenna Hackman each sank a 3-pointer in the first quarter, but just 1:30 into the game, Bane was called for her second foul.

With Bane on the bench, the Pioneers’ Megan Eve took off with four treys, with her final one at 55 seconds making it a 25-20 game. But Kaylee Bennett’s bucket inside in the final five seconds put her team up 30-22.

Maria Allen’s drive in the lane pushed the Braves’ lead back to double figures and Hackman rattled in a 3 at 2:40 to give her team a 47-31 lead and forcing Providence into a timeout. The Braves held on to a 48-34 advantage at halftime.

“Megan Eve is an exceptional player, and we knew that she could do that,” Rieckers said of Eve hitting the 3. “Sammie Bane does a really nice job defensively, and (Eve went on a surge) when (Bane) had to sit out in the second quarter. She had two fouls and we didn’t want her to pick up her third.”

With Bane back in the game in the second half, Eve was limited to four points after scoring 14 in the first half.

The Pioneers, however, were within 11 at 3:39 of the third quarter, and Rieckers had her team take a breather.

“Basically, we talked about that we needed to be more patient on offense,” Rieckers said. “Sometimes we were trying to force things when they weren’t there. We want to play the up-tempo game, but we also need to realize that if that transition isn’t there to get that layup, it’s OK to pull it out and set it up and run an offense, and sometimes we get a little bit too impatient because we want to play that transition game.”

The Braves regrouped, and Wehmiller’s lay-in at the buzzer made it a 65-54 contest.

Brownstown led by 18 on Brown’s jumper and Katelyn Shoemaker’s drive inside.

“Our girls are very unselfish. It doesn’t really matter who scores,” Rieckers said. “Sometimes we’re a little too unselfish. We need to step up and take a shot. I think there was a time or two we made one extra pass and we should have went up with the shot and as a result got a turnover. Overall, our girls work well together, they know where each other is going to be and they see the floor.”

Bane had a team-high 18 points, Shoemaker had 12, Wehmiller 11 and Allen 10 points and five assists. Bennett and Taylor Fleetwood led the rebounding effort with six apiece.

Eve and Katy Flanagan led the Pioneers’ charge with 18 and 17 points respectively. Mary Graf came off the bench and scored 10.

“We were giving up way too many points, and defense is something that has to improve,” Rieckers said. “We really don’t want to give up 65 points in a ball game, and that’s one of the things that probably was most disappointing tonight.”

The Braves will play host to Seymour (2-1) on Thursday.

“We’ve never played on the Friday night coming back after Thanksgiving,” Rieckers said. “It’s typically been a Saturday night game. Having that holiday and just a different routine from what they are used to, I was pleased with how we came out.”

By DENNIS DUNN

MITCHELL — The Brownstown Central girls basketball team traveled to Mitchell on Friday night to open their season against the Bluejackets.

It was the Bluejackets’ home opener, but they were coming into the game already having played three games.

The Braves started the game a little shaky, but found a rhythm late in the first quarter and continued to roll as they stung the Bluejackets 65-32.

“For the first game, I thought we came out and controlled the tempo of the game and did what we needed to do,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “Overall, I am pleased, but defensively we need to move our feet more, and going into the fourth quarter with 7:17 to go, we already had them in the bonus.
“That’s one of the things you can’t do, by putting people on the free-throw line like that. We just want to work on our defense. We also missed a lot of easy shots, but that’s first-game jitters. We were young tonight with the peple we had out there. Overall, I was pleased with our effort.”

A little past midway through the first quarter, the Braves and Bluejackets were tied at 4, as neither team could find the basket. Freshman Kaylee Bennett knocked down two free throws for the Braves to give them a two-point lead, and they never trailed the rest of the game. Those free throws led the Braves on a 12-0 run, which gave them a 16-4 first-quarter lead.

The Braves continued to put the pressure on the Bluejackets in the second quarter, scoring the first four points, to increase their lead to 20-4 on buckets by Jenna Hackman and Sammie Bane. The Bluejackets’ Alayna Super ended the Braves’ 16-point scoring run with a 3-pointer from the top of the key.

Katelyn Shoemaker scored two free throws and Bane hit a 3 to make it a 25-7 advantage.

The Braves forced the Bluejackets to turn the ball over 13 times in the first half, while they committed only six turnovers. Also, the Braves’ transition from defense to offense was key, as they connected on several fast-break points after a missed Bluejacket free throw.

“That’s one of the things we have been working on because we have some real athletic girls,” Rieckers said. “We have speed, so we are able to do that. We also have size and strength to get underneath the basket to get that rebound.”

The Braves didn’t slow down any in the second half, as they outscored the Bluejackets 14-7 in the third quarter and 17-11 in the fourth. The Braves finished the game 25 of 65 from the floor, while the Bluejackets were 9 of 39 shooting.

Another positive that Rieckers saw was the fact that every girl on the roster scored.

“That’s really nice,” Rieckers said. “I am really pleased with that. We had some JV step up and play tonight and get some valuable minutes at the varsity level. With everyone scoring, that gives them confidence.”

Bane and Shoemaker led the Braves with 13 points apiece, while Bennett played her first game as a Brave and picked up a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Hackman was the fourth player in double figures with 11 points.

The Braves also outrebounded the Bluejackets 36-30.

“It was good to start off with a win this year,” Rieckers said. “We wanted to focus on coming out strong and not have the same start we did last year.”

Brianne Fults led the Bluejackets with nine points, as she drained back-to-back 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. Allison Trevithick contributed eight.

Box score

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2009-10 outlook:

The Brownstown Central girls basketball team truly turned things around last season.

After opening with one win in five games, the Lady Braves won six straight and 13 of their final 16 games. They reached the sectional championship game and came out strong against a ranked Austin team, but the Eagles rallied for a five-point win.

This winter, six varsity players return, but one of them, senior Catherine Allen, will be out for the season after suffering a torn ACL the first week of practice, coach Karla Rieckers said.

The Braves still have Jamie Wehmiller (12.2 ppg), Sammie Bane (9.3 ppg) and Katelyn Shoemaker (7.9 ppg) as the returning starters, and there are returning lettermen Maria Allen (6.4 ppg) and Taylor Fleetwood (4.6 ppg).

“Our players are well-rounded athletes, as most of them participate in three sports throughout the school year,” Rieckers said. “Their athleticism provides our team with strength and quickness.”

But there is always room for improvement, and Rieckers would like to see her team continue to work on defensive intensity.

“We are still trying to get our basketball legs, which will take some time,” she said.

She also would like to see the team outrebound its opponents, decrease its number of turnovers, improve its field goal percentage and improve the conference and season records from last year.

The players’ work in the weight room and participating in summer leagues should help, Rieckers said.

“We participated in the summer Hoop Attack League and participated in the Clarksville and Providence shootout,” Rieckers said. “We are very excited about the upcoming season. Our players have worked hard over the summer to improve our girls basketball program. We are looking forward to more success this season, but we have to take it one game at a time and continue to improve throughout the year.”

Roster

Schedule

Nov. 20 at Mitchell
Nov. 27 at Providence
Dec. 3 Seymour
Dec. 5 Eastern (Pekin)
Dec. 10 at Salem
Dec. 12 at Austin
Dec. 15 Clarksville
Dec. 19 Silver Creek
Dec. 29-30 at Eastern Greene Tournament
Jan. 7 South Decatur
Jan. 9 Charlestown
Jan. 14 at Hauser
Jan. 16 at Jennings County
Jan. 19 Southwestern (Shelby)
Jan. 23 Brown County
Jan. 28 at North Harrison
Jan. 30 at Corydon Central
Feb. 2 at Scottsburg
Feb. 4 Paoli