WASHINGTON — For the past three high school basketball seasons, Brownstown Central’s Karla Rieckers has coached against Seymour player Amanda Moore in the county rivalry game.

On Monday night, though, Rieckers and Moore worked on the same side.

Rieckers was chosen as an assistant coach of the Indiana Junior All-Stars and Moore was one of 18 players chosen, and 12 of the All-Stars played an exhibition game against the Indiana Senior All-Stars on Monday at Washington High School. The boys squads followed with an exhibition game.

The 2011 girls Junior All-Stars consist of six south players, six north players and six core players. The south and core players competed on Monday at Washington, while the north and core players competed on Wednesday at Kokomo.

For Rieckers, it was a different experience having to coach players like Moore from a county rival and Jocelyn Mousty of Eastern (Pekin) from a conference rival. But it was an experience she liked.

The Junior All-Stars lost 94-47, but the 6-foot-3 Mousty finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds, while Moore made two 3-pointers and a reverse layup for eight points.

“I thought that Amanda and Jocelyn both represented the south exceptionally well,” Rieckers said. “Jocelyn came out, she was battling on the inside and was doing some things. And then Amanda, she’s such a great shooter and I told (the other coaches) that ahead of time. Once both of them got calmed down a little bit, they came out and played really well.”

The exhibition games prepare the Senior All-Stars for their games against the Kentucky All-Stars on Friday at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky., and on Saturday at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

During halftime of Saturday’s game, the Junior All-Stars will be recognized. 

Moore said she found out a couple of months ago that she was chosen.

“It’s an honor definitely to play with these girls. I’ve played with a lot of them on my AAU team, so I know most of them,” Moore said. “It’s just a fun thing, but at the same time, it’s a really big honor. It’s the biggest thing that you can play in as a junior, and this has been my goal for a long time. Of course, I want to be an Indiana All-Star next year, but this is a step in the right direction.”

On Monday, Moore said she arrived at Washington around 11:30 a.m. After team pictures, there was a practice before lunch and another practice, and then the big game.

“All the girls are really nice, and I think we shared the ball pretty well,” Moore said. “(The Senior All-Star team) is a great team, obviously. That’s got to be one of the best Indiana All-Star teams ever. To play against those kinds of girls is what we’re going to have in college. They are going to be like that every single game, so you might as well get used to it now.”

Moore was happy to be selected as a Junior All-Star, and now she can work toward being one of the girls chosen next year for the Senior All-Stars.

“I’ve been working extremely hard for this kind of stuff,” Moore said. “It doesn’t just require playing for your high school team. It requires going into the gym when other people aren’t in the gym. It requires playing AAU, working out with trainers. This is what you’ve got to do to play in this kind of game.”

Moore’s high school coach, Beth DeVinney, wasn’t surprised Moore was chosen as a Junior All-Star.

“She’s had three really good years at Seymour,” DeVinney said. “She’s a scorer. That’s what she does.”

Nominations from high school coaches around the state were taken in January, and at an Indiana Basketball Coaches Association board meeting, the nominees were discussed one by one.

“You get a lot of different perspectives on a lot of different kids,” DeVinney said, “and it was unanimous in southern Indiana that (Moore) was the second pick behind Lakin Roland (of Jeffersonville).”

If Moore continues to work hard and prove herself on the basketball court, DeVinney said, she could have a shot at being Seymour’s fifth girls Senior All-Star.

“You have a pretty good shot, but you’ve got to come back out and you’ve got to do the same job you did as a junior as a senior, if not even better,” DeVinney said. “The Indiana All-Star team is about tradition and history, and it’s a great, great honor. For us to have an Indiana All-Star at Seymour, and if Amanda happens to be that person, it would be a huge honor for her and for our staff and for our school and our community.

“She wants it, but she’s got to continue to work hard and we’ve got to try to put her in a position to be successful.”

The Junior All-Star program began in 1996, and in 2008, Kristin Turner was Seymour’s first girls player chosen. Moore was the second.

“Hopefully, we’ll have many more to come after that,” DeVinney said. “It’s just a great honor and it’s a great night of basketball for everybody involved, for all the kids involved, for their community and all their coaches. The Indiana All-Star experience is like no other. It’s one of a kind.”

DeVinney has served as an All-Star coach in the past, and this year, she served as a team manager for the boys and girls Junior All-Stars. Her job consisted of running the junior program.

For Rieckers, this was her first time being chosen to coach an All-Star team. The head coach was Mike Hamacher of Hobart and the other assistant coach was Doug Springer of Northridge.

“This is just my fourth year as a varsity coach, and for other people in the coaching community to recognize that is good for Brownstown, that they recognized the success and the work that we put in,” said Rieckers, who led the Lady Braves to the Class 2A state finals for the first time this past winter. “To hear from your peers, when they give you that recommendation, it’s reassurance that you’re doing something right.”

Rieckers met with the other two coaches early Monday morning. They went through the offense and defense they wanted to run, and then they shared that with the players during practice.

The coaches also divvied up duties. Hamacher focused on offense, Springer did defense and Rieckers did out of bounds and sideline.

“We all wanted the kids to play hard and give a good effort because the seniors team, they certainly have quite a few talented athletes,” Rieckers said. “I think it’s interesting when you have such a talented group of kids to get them to work together and be a good teammate. It’s just a great experience and a great atmosphere to be around.”

She was proud of the way the Junior All-Stars performed on the big stage.

BROWNSTOWN — The Brownstown Central girls basketball team’s journey to last winter’s Class 2A state finals piqued the interest of many in the area.

The school, town and beyond backed the Lady Braves. That included some of the 21 incoming fifth-graders and 14 incoming sixth-graders who attended the recent eight-day Brownstown Central Lady Braves basketball camp.

“It inspired me a lot, and I just hope one day I’ll be up (at the state finals),” said Carley Brock, who will be a sixth-grader next fall.

“The high school girls really inspired me to come to camp,” said Kylie Isaacs, who will be in fifth grade. “I really want to play in high school, so that inspired me to move on with Coach (Karla) Rieckers.”

Some campers wore Lady Braves T-shirts that had “Small Town, Big Dreams” on the back. Each year, a slogan is selected by the high school players who will be seniors the next school year, and that is used in the design of the summer camp T-shirts and throughout the basketball season.

So what will it take for these girls to someday work toward a state championship?

“A lot of practice and a lot of concentration and focus,” Brock said.

Attending camp is a step in the right direction. It ran from May 9 to May 12 and then May 16 to May 19 in the Brownstown Central Middle School gymnasium.

The camp consisted of drills to enhance the girls’ fundamentals, and on the last day, the session consisted of layup, dribbling and passing drills, and some games were thrown in for fun.

“The focus for our younger players is to work on drills that will improve their fundamentals and learn some drills that we do at the high school level,” Rieckers said. “The first week of camp, we did more individual fundamental things. The second week, we tried to expand that and incorporate the fundamentals into drills that involved the whole team.”

The whole idea is to teach the girls to be competitive.

“Anytime you do contests, games, it makes the girls compete with one another and start to instill the competitiveness that we want our players to display,” Rieckers said. “Playing games is also a way for the younger players to develop a love of the game because they find basketball to be fun.”

Current and former players also helped Rieckers with the camp, and that’s good for the campers.

“Girls benefit by getting to work one-on-one with some of our high school players, former players and coaches,” Rieckers said. “It gives us a chance to interact and get to know the younger players. Our staff hopes that they take away the message to work hard and want to continue to play basketball next year at their schools.”

Brock, Isaacs and another camper, Claire Myers, got that message.

“They taught me some new stuff,” Myers said of camp. “You learn a lot and you have fun. To practice at home, it helps you when you get older.”

Brock said she learned new ball-handling skills, which should help her as she progresses.

“I’m going to practice at home and use (the skills) throughout my career of basketball,” she said.

Besides learning about basketball, Isaacs said camp helped her form friendships.

“It’s a really good sport to be with your friends and hang out,” Isaacs said. “I think it’s about getting together with your friends to play a sport you love. My advice is for everybody to do it if you enjoy basketball.”

Rieckers decided to move the fifth- and sixth-graders’ camp to after school instead of in the summer. The camp for incoming seventh- and eighth-graders will be from 10 a.m. to noon June 6-10 at the high school.

That will be another time to inspire some more girls.

Thursday’s final session of camp ended with a video of highlights from the high school team’s run to the state finals in Fort Wayne.

“At camp, we talked about who had attended some of our tournament games and who had watched on television,” Rieckers said. “Almost every single girl had been to a tournament game or watched it on TV.”

She said the community has always provided great support.

“Our sports programs have great support from the community regardless of the sport. People are involved and want our schools to be successful,” Rieckers said.

The success of last season spurred the “Small Town, Big Dreams” slogan for the 2011-12 season.

“I think when you look at the community of Brownstown, we are a small town,” Rieckers said. “Moving up to 3A next season will be a challenge for us, but our returning players have set goals, dreams that they want to accomplish.

The program considers “academic prowess and athletic prowess” when considering selections, the IBCA press release stated. Items such as grade-point average, college board scores and academic class rank are considered along with athletic performance, including areas such as points per game, rebounds per game, assists per game and shooting percentage.

After a 17-all score through one period of play and Brownstown Central taking a 30-27 lead by halftime, Fort Wayne Bishop Luers took control in the second half for a 59-46 victory and the Class 2A girls basketball title.

Brownstown took the lead in the second quarter on a 3-pointer by Kaylee Bennett and maintained the advantage until halftime.

But in the third quarter, Bishop Luers started on a 7-2 run and then extended the scoring edge to 11-3. The Knights outscored the Braves 12-6, but only held a 39-36 lead entering the fourth quarter.

Sammie Bane's free throw at 5:57 of the fourth made it a 43-39 game, but Bishop Luers scored nine straight points and held tight down the stretch. The Knights outscored the Braves 20-10 in the fourth and 32-16 in the second half.

Affecting Brownstown was turning the ball over 23 times, including at least six in the first three quarters. Also, Bishop Luers had 14 of its 35 rebounds on the offensive end and had an 18-4 second-chance points advantage.

Bane and Maria Allen were the only Braves in double figures, scoring 10 apiece.

The Knights were led by 6-foot-1 junior Miracle Woods, who had 24 points and 14 rebounds, while two others were in double figures.

The upside for the Braves was Bane earned the mental attitude award for 2A.

Brownstown Central Lady Brave Sammie Bane was honored with the Mental Attitude Award in Class 2A in Saturday's IHSAA girls basketball state tournament.

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FORT WAYNE — A solid run through the postseason led the Brownstown Central Lady Braves to Fort Wayne on Saturday to vie for the Class 2A girls basketball title.

The things that went well for the 11th-ranked Braves in sectional, regional and semistate carried into the first half of the state finals game with second-ranked Fort Wayne Bishop Luers.

The teams were knotted at 17 after one period of play and the Braves took the lead early in the second quarter and maintained it until halftime, leading 30-27. They, however, turned the ball over 12 times in the half.

In the second half, Bishop Luers had a pair of runs, the first of which gave the Knights the lead for good, and continued to cause the Braves to fumble the ball. In the end, the score favored the Knights 59-46, giving them the 2A trophy.

This was Bishop Luers’ sixth girls basketball title, which is the most of any school in the state. Two of those titles were when the Knights were in Class 3A.

“I really thought that we had a great game plan,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “We came out in the first half and we really executed the game plan the way we needed to.”

But Rieckers and the Braves knew Bishop Luers was a good team with pressure defense, size and athleticism. Those things all worked for the Knights in the second half.

“We made a few costly turnovers, and then just couldn’t get the ball to go in the basket,” Rieckers said. The Braves had at least six turnovers in each of the first three quarters and finished the game with 23, compared to the Knights’ 14. After shooting 10 for 17 from the field in the first half, Brownstown’s shooting went sour in the second half, going 6 for 23.

“We had some nice little shots underneath the basket, shots that we typically make, but couldn’t get those to fall,” Rieckers said. “From there, things just kind of got out of sync from where we wanted to be.”

At the start of the game, it appeared it would be a close battle to the end. There were three lead changes and a couple of ties. Brownstown’s Maria Allen scored on an inbounds play with 13 seconds remaining in the first quarter for a 17-15 lead, but Bishop Luers went to its strong 6-foot-1 junior, Miracle Woods, for a basket in the closing seconds, tying the score after one.

Kaylee Bennett banked in a 3-pointer from the left wing just 21 seconds in the second quarter, and Brownstown never trailed the rest of the period. The Braves had a three-point lead six times, with the last one on Allen’s free throws with 15 seconds remaining in the half for a 30-27 score.

In the second half, though, things just didn’t go right for the Braves.

The Knights opened the third quarter on a 7-2 run to take a 34-32 lead at 5:06. They extended the run to an 11-4 edge by 1:53, making it 38-34. Jenna Hackman then drove in for a layup to pull the Braves within two points at 37 seconds, but Brooke Ridley made one of her two free throws at 19 seconds, giving Bishop Luers a 39-36 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

In the third, Brownstown had eight turnovers, including five in the final 1:35, and Bishop Luers had seven, but the Knights outscored the Braves 12-6.

The teams traded baskets to open the fourth quarter before the Knights scored 10 straight points, and they led 53-39 with 1:28 to go. Their largest lead was 15 points with 58 seconds remaining in the game after Hilary Watts’ three-point play.

“We knew that post play for them was going to be important,” Rieckers said. “We worked on that, but when you don’t have the size to match that, you’re kind of going to give up some things, and that’s what happened. Miracle Woods did a tremendous job for them on the inside. She’s hard to stop, she’s strong, she’s athletic, and when you’re guarding 5-9 and 5-10 with 6-1, it’s hard to stop somebody like that.”

Woods led all scorers with 24 points, and she made it a double-double with 14 rebounds.
Bishop Luers face-guarded Brownstown’s leading scorer, Sammie Bane, especially in the second half, and that prevented the Braves from getting their offense running the way they wanted.

“We have some shooters from the outside, but we do like to dribble drive, and when you’re going in there against Miracle and Ridley with the size they have, I think you get a little hesitant, and we couldn’t get a foul drawn,” Rieckers said. “Then, we start to doubt and second-guess whether we need to drive the ball in there or not, so we just kind of got a little bit away from our game plan and what we needed to do.”

Bane and Allen each scored 10 points to lead the Braves, while Katelyn Shoemaker and Hackman had eight apiece.

Bishop Luers had a 35-30 rebounding edge, including a 14-6 advantage on the offensive end.

 
“My girls never quit, and I’m just pleased that they continued to play hard throughout,” Rieckers said. “I’m very, very proud of all of the young ladies on my team and the effort they gave.”

Bane and Shoemaker are the only seniors on the team. For the girls returning next year, Rieckers said, it will be good for them having the state finals experience. It was Brownstown’s first state finals appearance in girls basketball.

Knights return to top

Hope to knock off Fort Wayne Luers

Brownstown will attempt to alter the Indiana high school basketball map Saturday.

The No. 12 Braves (23-5) will chase their first Class 2-A girls' basketball state championship when they meet No. 2 Fort Wayne Luers (23-2) at approximately 12:45p.m. in Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne.

Brownstown will be the underdog, playing last year's state runner-up in its backyard. The Braves will gladly accept that role, using it as motivation to pull off an upset.

"We're from the south, and people act like they've never heard of Brownstown before," Brownstown coach Karla Rieckers said after meeting the media at Monday's news conference. "The girls are taking that role -- they like being the underdog. They want to make a point people would remember."

Conquering Luers, a program that has won five state titles, would certainly be memorable. The Knights have the experience edge with three returning starters from the team that lost to Austin 70-65 in overtime in last year's final.

Their strengths, with 6-foot junior post players Miracle Woods (14.0 points, 9.2 rebounds) and Brooke Ridley (12.0, 9.4) plus 5-8 guard Brierra Young (14, 5.4), play directly against Brownstown's problem areas.

"They have a really nice team," Rieckers said. "We've had a weakness defending the post and blocking out, so that's an area of concern. We have to get a body on somebody."

Brownstown will counter with its up-tempo offense (18th in the state in scoring at 61.3 points per game). Seniors Sammie Bane (16.4 points, 4.2 rebounds) and Kate Shoemaker (13.3, 6.1) are the scoring leaders.

"The thing that impressed me the most was their passing against Winchester (in the semistate)," Luers coach Denny Renier said. "They have a good perimeter game and a couple of kids that can go inside. It can be hard to match up with them. It's hard to press and trap them."

Rieckers' top priority will be keeping her team from getting stressed by the moment. Their loose approach, with smiles punctuating the pregame huddle, worked well against Winchester last week at Southport as the Braves bolted to a 20-6 lead and cruised to a 69-58 win.

BROWNSTOWN — This is coach Karla Rieckers’ fourth year as head coach of the Brownstown Central High School girls basketball team.

During the first three years, there were exciting moments, but this year has provided even more excitement and buzz among the players, coaches and managers as well as family, friends and community supporters.

First, the Lady Braves tied for first in the Mid-Southern Conference. Then came the sectional title on Feb. 12, defeating Austin in the championship game. A week later at Forest Park, the Lady Braves defeated Forest Park and Covenant Christian for the regional title.

And last weekend at Southport, the girls started strong and went on to defeat Winchester in the Class 2A semistate game, advancing to Saturday’s state finals game against Fort Wayne Bishop Luers at Fort Wayne’s Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.

This week has been a whirlwind for the coaching staff, beginning with a meeting and tour of the arena on Monday, and later in the week, dinners, practices and even interviews for a WAVE 3 television news segment.

And on Thursday, a pep session in the high school gym was the final sendoff before the team heads to Fort Wayne to practice this afternoon.

It’s all an experience Rieckers and her assistant coaches, Jade Peters, Lee Ann Borden and George Wooten, will remember for a long time.

“We’ve had a lot of classes, teachers and students, send the girls posters or cards,” Rieckers said of the support the team has received. “Our players don’t realize the message and example that they are sending to all the young girls in our community. I’ve had a lot of parents thank our program because of the interest that it’s sparking in their daughters to work harder at basketball and sports.”

This week, the players and coaches also have had to focus on their opponent, the 23-2 Lady Knights. After viewing game film of Bishop Luers, Rieckers said the Knights are a “very athletic team.”

That includes size inside with 6-foot-1 Miracle Woods, who averages 14 points and 9.2 rebounds per game, and 5-foot-11 Brooke Ridley, who averages 12 points and 9.4 rebounds per game.

“Two very good post players who are athletic and long, and we have to be able to contain them and play good post defense,” Rieckers said. “We definitely have to block out because if they miss a shot, they are crashing the boards, so we have to limit them to one shot and done.”

There are also three outside shooters, Catherine Barnett, Brierra Young and Hilary Watts. The latter two are two of the team’s three seniors.

“They’ve got an inside-outside game and can also drive to the basket, and we just need to go in with the same kind of focus that we’ve had the last few weeks,” Rieckers said.

In last year’s 2A state finals, Austin defeated Bishop Luers 70-65 in overtime.

“Luers has a lot of their players back from last season’s team that Austin defeated, and we played Austin within five points last year during the sectional, so I think that gives us some confidence,” Rieckers said. “I don’t know anybody we’ve played throughout the tournament (this year) that the girls have ever appeared to be intimidated by. The motto that we’ve had for this team is ‘Driven to succeed.’ They come in with a purpose and they come in driven to prove a point.”

All four of the coaches have enjoyed the ride so far, and they feel good about this weekend’s game.

“This is really a special group of girls,” said Borden, who has been on Rieckers’ staff for three years. “There’s no drama, they all get along, they all have fun. They’re respectful, they work hard, they have good work ethic. It just makes our job as coaches a lot easier to have a special group of girls like that.”

Coaching, Borden said, has brought back a lot of memories of when she played for Donna Sullivan at Seymour High School.

“(Sullivan) has molded me, giving me that knowledge of the game of basketball and the love of the game of basketball,” Borden said. “I always knew I wanted to be a coach, and I thank Coach Rieckers for giving me this opportunity because I love working with the girls.”

Wooten spent several years coaching at the middle school level before finally accepting Rieckers’ offer to join her staff. It took some convincing, he said, and he took Rieckers up on her offer the second time he was asked.

“I told her the second time, ‘I want to be part of a winning program,’ and it’s turned out to be the case,” said Wooten, a Crothersville native and former basketball player. “From day one, she’s always said we want to get to the point where we can win sectional. We not only won sectional, we won semistate and now we’re at state. I’m proud as heck of the girls. They’ve worked hard, and I don’t think we’re done. This is our year.”

Peters has been Rieckers’ assistant all four years. When the head-coaching job opened four years ago, Rieckers expressed interest in it and asked Peters if he would be interested in assisting her. With his background in coaching football, Peters was unsure at first.

“I was sitting there thinking, ‘Girls? I’m the football guy here. I’ve never coached girls,’” Peters said. “But what I quickly found out was you’re just coaching athletes. The boys will get mad at me for saying this, but girls do listen better and they are very easy to coach. There’s a lot of differences, and it’s fun for me to see those differences when I go from football to basketball.”

Peters said the coaches were pleased with how the team played during the summer, but he noticed a change once the season began.

“They came out and just played (in the summer) and I think they didn’t hold things back,” he said, “but they started thinking too much and not just going out and having fun and playing.”

Then, they turned things around.

“Once they really started working together as a team, which I think was the second quarter of the Clarksville sectional game and in the Paoli (sectional) game, ever since then, they’ve clicked,” he said. “They’ve realized if we work to help each other out, then we can do something special, and they’ve definitely done that. It’s been a lot of fun to watch.”

Peters and the other coaches expect the girls to continue playing together on Saturday, and the state title is there for the taking.

SOUTHPORT — Members of the Brownstown Central Lady Braves basketball team were playing in their first semistate on Saturday afternoon, and up to this point, the journey has been one to remember.

Getting to semistate was part of the memories, and for the Braves, the season will continue, as they captured the school’s first girls basketball semistate title with a 69-58 win over Winchester at the Southport Fieldhouse. Brownstown also made it to semistate in 1996 and 1998, but this was the first win.

The Braves watched film on the Golden Falcons earlier in the week and knew they pressed a lot, but the Braves were able to exploit faults in the defense, which resulted in plenty of layups on their end.

“We knew we had to watch the ball and stay on them because we watched them on film, and they flooded to the ball,” Braves senior Katelyn Shoemaker said. “If we move the passes quick, then I knew the ball would get to me. I just didn’t know I would get that open.”

A fast start was needed, too, and the Braves did that and never let up.

Hailey Brown hit a 3-pointer at 7:32 to give them a 3-0 lead, but a basket by Winchester cut the lead to one. Shoemaker then scored her first layup for a 5-2 lead, but the Golden Falcons got within one point again.

Brown had her second 3-pointer of the first quarter, Kaylee Bennett knocked down a turnaround jumper in the lane and Sammie Bane drove in the lane for a basket for a 12-4 lead, and the Braves never looked back.

After the Golden Falcons ended the 7-0 run, the Braves had an 8-0 run to close out the quarter and led 20-6.

“Coach (Karla) Rieckers tell us every time there are going to be ups and downs and that we are going to have runs and they are going to have runs, but that is the game of basketball,” Shoemaker said.

“That’s one of the things we talked about because we don’t always come out ready to play,” Rieckers said. “I talked about being focused and play for 32 minutes, and we haven’t done that this year consistently, but since we hit the tournament, we stepped up our focus and play from beginning to end.”

Brown found herself in foul trouble in the second quarter, as she picked up her third foul at the 4:39 mark, and the Golden Falcons went on a 7-0 run midway through the period and got within 25-19.

But later, Maria Allen had a steal and layup to end the scoring in the second quarter, and the Braves went into the locker room with a 31-20 lead.

“At halftime, Coach told us just to calm down,” Brown said. “We just needed to calm down and play our game, and it will take care of itself. We had to play defense and take care of our offense. The coaches told us all week what they do and how they like to trap in the backcourt, so that will leave a girl open for us on the other end. We just focused on that and executed.”

The Golden Falcons shot 6 of 25 from the floor in the first half and committed six turnovers, and they finished the game 21 of 59 from the floor and had 13 turnovers. The Braves were 14 of 28 from the floor in the first half and finished 30 of 55 for the game, and they also had 13 turnovers.

Shoemaker stepped up big for the Braves in the third quarter by scoring 11 of her game-high 25 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the floor and 1 of 2 from the foul line. Brown hit her third 3-pointer of the game to start the third quarter and Shoemaker made a basket for a 36-20 lead.

After the Golden Falcons converted a three-point play, Shoemaker scored the next eight points for the Braves to lead 47-29. They led by 18 points twice in the quarter, but the Golden Falcons closed out the quarter by scoring the final six points to cut the Braves’ lead to 51-41.

Brownstown outscored Winchester 18-17 in the fourth quarter, as each team traded baskets for almost four minutes of the period.

Besides Shoemaker, Brownstown had three other players score in double figures. Bane and Brown each scored 13 and Allen scored 10. The Braves outrebounded the Golden Falcons 30-19, and Shoemaker collected 12 for a double-double. The Braves dished out 17 assists, as Bennett had six and Allen contributed five.

Winchester, which finished with a 21-5 record, was led by Kaylie Fraze’s 18 points and Jill Morrison scored 16.

With the win, the Braves improved to 23-5 and will be making the school’s first trip to the girls basketball state finals. Shoemaker, Brown, Rieckers and the rest of the team were excited about making history.

“It is just amazing and it’s one of those things that we have talked about, and I have believed in these girls,” Rieckers said. “My seniors were freshmen when I started and this was one of those things we wanted to accomplish, and I couldn’t be more proud of my entire team.”

Shoemaker said, “It’s awesome and the best feeling ever. We knew this could happen, and a small-town team like us, this is awesome.”

Brown added, “It feels really good, and I probably won’t be able to stop smiling.”

The Braves turn their attention to Saturday’s state finals game with Fort Wayne Bishop Luers (23-2), who earned a 47-43 win over Culver Community in the Elkhart Central Semistate on Saturday.

On Saturday morning at the breakfast table, Denise Shoemaker and her daughter, Katelyn, had a conversation about the girls basketball semistate game that afternoon at Southport.

“I said, ‘Well, Kate, are you nervous about this?’” Denise said. “She said, ‘No, I’m just going to go play ball, give it my all and it is what it is.’ I said, ‘You’re so calm,’ and she said, ‘Because it’s fun.’”

That positive outlook paid off, as Katelyn, a senior, led the Brownstown Central Lady Braves with 25 points in a 69-58 win over Winchester in the Class 2A semistate at the Southport Fieldhouse.

What Denise liked most about Saturday’s game is how the Lady Braves started out strong, leading 20-6 after one period of play.

And they maintained that focus the rest of the way. Even when the Golden Falcons applied pressure, the Braves broke through.

“When this group plays team ball, they are phenomenal,” Denise said. “They come together, and when they play together, good things always happen.”

Katelyn’s father, Bruce Shoemaker, said the way the girls played in the first quarter tops everything he has seen all year.

“I thought it was the best first quarter we’ve played all year,” Bruce said. “Especially in the first half, we had everybody scoring. All five starters had four to six points in the first half, and that makes it hard on the defense when everybody is doing something.”

Coach Karla Rieckers warned the team of Winchester’s ability to press and trap, but those things didn’t faze the Braves.

“There were times where we couldn’t stop them on the offensive end because they were posting up down low,” Bruce said, “but we would break their press right away and had easy baskets, so we just traded basket for basket. But when you’re up 12, that’s a pretty good situation when that happens.”

Along with Katelyn’s game-high 25 points, Sammie Bane and Hailey Brown had 13 points apiece and Maria Allen finished with 10.

“There’s always somebody that steps up,” Denise said. “That’s what makes these guys so fun to watch. You never know whose day it is.”

Bruce said, “I think everybody played phenomenal. We found the open person all the time, and it was just everybody. It wasn’t one person. (Katelyn) scored the points today, but really it was everybody just like it is every game.”

Denise recalled Katelyn being somewhat worried about looking into the crowd and seeing all of the people and becoming nervous, but Denise played in the 1984 volleyball Final Four her senior year, so she shared her experience with her daughter.

“I told her, ‘You will never forget when you look up in that crowd and see so many people that are coming to watch girls basketball,’” Denise said. “It’s Brownstown and everybody goes, and people will not forget this day. It is just so exciting, just love the moment, look up and be thankful that you have the community that supports you like Brownstown does.”

By pregame, Denise and Bruce noticed Katelyn and the other girls smiling and laughing. Then, they realized the girls were ready.

“It was like they were actually having fun out there,” Denise said. “Kate’s played with a lot of these girls since fourth grade, so they just gel, they get along, they have fun.”

Several of the girls, including Katelyn, have played volleyball together and been to the state finals in that sport, so having that experience helped.

“I think their nerves are just to the point where they just accept what’s going on and they can handle it better,” Bruce said.

Another proud parent was Allen’s mother, Beth Allen. Like Katelyn, Maria didn’t seem nervous the morning of the game.

“She just got up and it was like another game day,” Beth said. “I was like, ‘OK, I’m more nervous than you are.’”

After watching the semistate game, Beth said, “The team was fantastic. They are playing better than we’ve seen them play all season. That first quarter, especially. I don’t think I’ve seen that good of a quarter out of them for a long time, if even all season, so they are just doing great.”

A big lift for the Braves throughout the year, especially in the postseason, has been Maria’s drives to the basket.

“She did it in middle school,” Beth said, “and then she came up and was behind Sammie and she played where she needed to play, and now is when they are counting on her. She’s (driving to the basket) because we’ve always known she’s been able to do it.”

Beth said Maria began the season with a back injury, and she wondered if that would affect her daughter. Apparently not.

“She’s peaking at the right time,” Beth said. “She’s always been an outstanding player.”

Maria also had the backing of several cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents on Saturday, and they all watched a great effort by her and the rest of the Lady Braves.

“I’m a very proud mother, of course. She’s a fantastic young lady, and I love her to death,” Beth said. “I know she gives it 110 percent. She doesn’t leave anything on the court. She’s driving when she needs to, she’s passing when she needs to, she’s a rebounder, she blocks out. She does it all because it’s her love, it’s her passion. It’s always been.”

Also beaming with pride on Saturday were Rieckers’ mother, Marilyn Benter, and father, Robert Benter.

Rieckers was the junior varsity coach at Brownstown for 12 to 13 years, Marilyn said, and then she had kids and took time away from coaching. She eventually got back into coaching at St. John’s Lutheran School at Sauers before the head-coaching job opened at the high school.

Whenever Karla is coaching, Marilyn and Robert try to be there. And now, they have grandkids playing and they try to make it to those games, too.

“I like basketball, and we try to follow as many of (the grandkids) as we possibly can. It’s kind of hard to do,” Marilyn said, adding that she and Robert went to all but two of Karla’s games this season.

Robert said it’s fun for him because he likes basketball, too, and he said he coached “years ago.”

“It’s just fun to watch the girls progress and improve as the year goes on,” he said. “The girls have really gelled over the last five or six games and really pulled together, and (semistate) was a team win. They’ve done a great job, worked together like a family.”

At a pep session in Brownstown on Saturday night, BCHS Athletic Director Mark DeHart talked about assistant coach Lee Ann Borden telling him about a Jeffersonville fan coming up to her after the game and saying that watching Rieckers coach was like watching Pat Summitt, who is the head coach of the University of Tennessee women’s team.

After the Braves played, Jeffersonville beat Carmel 63-58 in overtime in the Class 4A game at Southport.

What’s ironic about that comparison, Marilyn said, is Karla read books about Summitt when she was younger.

“She watched (the Lady Volunteers) when she was growing up,” Marilyn said. “I’ve got books at home that she bought, and I read them, too.”

Being a head coach has always been Karla’s goal, Marilyn said, and in her fourth year at the helm, she has led her team to the state finals. The Braves (23-5) will travel to Fort Wayne on Saturday to play Fort Wayne Bishop Luers (23-2) for the Class 2A state title.
The Benters said they intend on being there.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Winchester left the back door wide-open, and Brownstown barged through to grab a semistate championship.

The No. 12 Braves ripped apart No. 11 Winchester's insistent but ineffective press, converting breakaway baskets that fueled their 69-58 victory in the Class 2-A girls' basketball semistate Saturday at Southport.

Brownstown (23-5) advanced to its first state championship game next week at Fort Wayne, where it will meet No. 1 Fort Wayne Luers (23-2), last year's state runner-up. Luers beat No. 6 Culver 47-43 in the northern semistate at Elkhart Central.

Brownstown senior Kate Shoemaker collected 25 points and 12 rebounds, and the majority of her baskets came on the business end of a press break.

Guards Maria Allen and Sammie Bane handled Winchester's variety of full-court defenses, often finding the rim unguarded as the Golden Falcons (21-5) overextended their attack.

"I was wide-open," Shoemaker said. "We watched a lot of film, and we figured it would be open. But not that open. I was amazed."

Brownstown, the second straight Mid-Southern Conference team to reach the 2-A final, never trailed and took advantage of Winchester's sense of desperation once the gap swelled. As the Falcons stretched the press, the Braves exposed it.

"We thought, by watching film, quickness was to our advantage," Brownstown coach Karla Rieckers said. "We felt like they would really bring the trap up. If we could handle that, we would have the person back there open because we move the ball well."

Hailey Brown's two three-pointers and Allen's three baskets powered Brownstown to a 20-6 lead after the first quarter. Winchester got within 25-19, but Brownstown had a double-digit lead in the second half -- with the biggest margin 43-25 -- until the final minute.

"We got behind, and we knew we couldn't do that," said Winchester coach Kirk Comer, whose club lost to Austin in last year's semistate. "We got off to a slow start and dug ourselves too big a hole. We just couldn't get back."

Bane and Brown finished with 13 points each, and Allen added 10.

Thanks to the layup drill against the press, the Braves shot 60 percent (30 of 50). Shoemaker had 19 points, hitting 9of 12 shots, in the second half.

"We haven't always come out ready to play, being focused and always playing 32 minutes," Rieckers said. "We haven't done that consistently this year. But since we hit the tournament, we've stepped up our focus and played from beginning to end."

Kaylee Fraze paced Winchester with 18 points, and Jill Morrison had 16.

Brownstown will be a significant underdog against Luers, which will play the state title game in its backyard at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. Brownstown will make a three-hour road trip in its quest for the school's first championship.

It's Snodgrass who pulls the trigger

Written by

Justin Sokeland

 

At first glance, Brownstown High School senior Jalen Snodgrass doesn’t resemble a cold-hearted killer.

Take another look. Behind that smile, Snodgrass was a stringy-haired assassin in black sneakers Friday night as he personally crushed Clarksville’s unbeaten basketball season.

He shot holes in Clarksville’s defense and scored 36 points, two shy of his career high, as the Class 3-A No. 9 Braves went on the road and handed the 2-A No. 7 Generals their first setback, 66-62. The outcome set up a wild finish to the Mid-Southern Conference race.

Defending champion Brownstown (15-1) took temporary command of the league at 7-1, while Clarksville (14-1) slipped to 6-1 as it chases its first conference crown since 1978. Both have all league road games remaining, as does Silver Creek, still in the rearview mirror at 5-1.

“The glass slipper is off,” Clarksville coach Jason Connell said. “We don’t have to worry about that anymore. And that’s good sometimes. You don’t want to ever lose, you don’t want to lose a conference game at home, but it’s hard to go undefeated.”

Containing Snodgrass was the hardest part.

The 5-foot-10 point guard was an executioner with the basketball in his hands as he popped three 3-pointers, sliced through the lane for layups for himself or open teammates and converted 10 fourth-quarter free throws.

“When he’s hitting shots he’s hard to guard because of his ballhandling ability and getting to the rim,” Brownstown coach David Benter said. “He got his confidence and played a whale of a game. He’s so unselfish when he gets in the lane. He finds guys.”

Snodgrass was at his best in the third quarter, when Clarksville was controlling tempo. He exploded with a 3-pointer, a daring drive through traffic for a left-handed layup, a steal for a breakaway basket and another 3-pointer that bounced in off the front rim.

When he finally cooled after scoring 15 in the period, Brownstown had a lead it would not relinquish, though the Generals drew even twice.

“I knew I was going to have to step up, being a senior point guard,” said Snodgrass, who torched Seymour for 38 on Dec. 2. “I was getting to the rim. That’s what I would rather do. I’d much rather get in there, draw contact and make free throws.”

That formula worked perfectly in the fourth quarter, when Clarksville made some rare mistakes and allowed the Braves to finally create a working margin. The Generals’ first fatal turnover was followed by two Snodgrass free throws for a 57-52 lead, and the second led to Tanner Payton’s layup off a Snodgrass pass for a 59-52 advantage.

“He’s a great player, there’s no doubt about it,” Connell said. “You can’t do that against good teams and good players. They get you every time.”

Brett McCory added 12 points for the Braves, who beat Clarksville for the fifth straight time and the 17th time in the past 19 meetings.

Clarksville’s offensive hero was senior Billy Edelen, who came off the bench to score 18 points, including four 3-pointers.

Edelen scored 10 of the Generals’ last 11 points of the first half, stroking two 3-pointers that gave the Generals their first lead since the first two minutes. His final jumper for a 26-23 edge was answered by Skylar Thompson’s layup that cut Clarksville’s lead to one at intermission.

That’s when the Braves decided Snodgrass would do the rest of the heavy lifting, running him off screens until he found a crack to the basket.

“I thought we handled adversity really well,” Benter said. “We handled it much better than we did against Silver Creek a couple of weeks ago (a 72-63 loss on Jan. 13). We were really poised. We knew what Clarksville is capable of. We had to have a great effort, and I thought our guys did that.”

Aidan McEwen added 15 points and nine rebounds for the Generals, who lost despite committing only nine turnovers. Brownstown (six turnovers) was just a little better, with only one miscue in the second half.

Clarksville, bidding for its first conference title since the Chuck Franz era, still faces games at Salem on Thursday and North Harrison on Feb. 14. The Generals haven’t been this much of a factor in the race since finishing second in 1997.

“We’ll regroup and be hungry now,” Connell said.

Brownstown will finish league play at Eastern Pekin on Feb. 17, while Silver Creek must visit Scottsburg on Thursday, Austin on Feb. 14 and Corydon on Feb. 17.
___________________________________________

 

Lady Braves to face Winchester on Saturday

BROWNSTOWN — One more week.

That’s what the Brownstown Central Lady Braves basketball team earned last weekend when it defeated Forest Park 59-54 and Covenant Christian 54-47 in the Class 2A Regional at Forest Park.

Those wins gave the Braves (22-5) another week of the season, and on Saturday in the Southport Semistate, they will take on Winchester (21-4), which defeated Northeastern 78-48 and Indian Creek 70-57 in the Lawrence Central Regional.

Last year, eventual 2A champion Austin defeated Winchester 72-48 in the Southport Semistate.

Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers and her staff ran through practices Monday through Wednesday at Brownstown, and on Thursday, the team traveled to Southport to practice on the semistate court.

“Monday, we didn’t go real hard based on (playing) the two games on Saturday. We stretched out and shot, did some different things,” Rieckers said. “Tuesday, we came in and had a normal practice, ran drills, focused on a few things that we thought were weaknesses from regional, being blocking out, rebounding because especially in the Forest Park game, that was something we didn’t do as well.”

On Wednesday, the team scrimmaged and ran through some sets that Winchester runs. And the next day at Southport, the team focused on shooting at both ends of the court.

“I think anytime you can go to the gym where you’re going to play, it’s to your advantage,” Rieckers said. “Southport has a lot of size, so hopefully we won’t be overwhelmed by that. However, we have played in bigger gyms than that. Seymour is bigger than Southport. But just the atmosphere of the place and to be able to go and work out at their gym gives our kids some confidence.”

Brownstown senior Katelyn Shoemaker thought practicing at Southport would be beneficial, while sophomore Kaylee Bennett admitted she was nervous.

“Even though the fans aren’t there, you’ll still see all the bleachers and just feel like you’re there (in a game),” Shoemaker said. “I know it’s going to be big, and we’ve played in big gyms and little gyms, so I’ll be OK with it.”

Bennett said she has been to the Southport gym before, but added, “I’m just really nervous about it. Just getting used to it, it’s going to be big.”

This week, the Braves have been able to watch game film of the Golden Falcons to get an idea of what to expect.

“They really like to shoot the 3-point shot,” Rieckers noted. “They have about three players on their team that are really effective from the 3-point line. We play man defense, so I think as long as we stay focused on our player and what we need to do, we’ll be all right with their 3-point shot.”

One of them is 5-foot-6 senior Kaylie Fraze. She had five of the team’s six 3s in the regional championship game, and she and 5-foot-8 sophomore Jill Morrison scored 24 points apiece.

Size-wise, the Golden Falcons have a freshman and a sophomore at 5-foot-11 and a freshman and a senior at 5-foot-10.

Bennett, at 5-foot-11, and Shoemaker, at 5-foot-9, man the post, and they know their roles.

“This week’s game is to rebound a lot and block out and just be strong down low,” Shoemaker said. “Size isn’t really a big deal to us because we’ve played teams that are 6 foot and over, so we’re just used to it.”

Bennett said as long as the team blocks out, the Braves should be in good shape.

“They shoot a lot outside, and they don’t really drive very much,” Bennett said. “Their defense kind of pulls out, so I feel if we push the ball, we’ll be able to get open shots.”

Going into Saturday’s game, Rieckers is using the motto she has had all along, “one game at a time.”

“Teams are going to have some momentum, ups and downs, and we just need to stay with our game plan, what’s got us here to this point,” Rieckers said. “We have a lot of players that can be a threat on the floor, and we just need to keep our composure and stay focused on the game plan that we have.”

Members of the team also have been trying to let the regional win sink in while focusing on what’s next.

“I was so shocked,” Shoemaker said of the regional win. She was most impressed by her team’s composure against two solid teams at regional. “We are just a strong team mentally and we can overcome things, nothing frazzles us.”

She feels her team has had a “phenomenal” season, and she had an idea that the team could get this far.

“I didn’t know how far we’d get,” Shoemaker said, “but I was hoping far. It’s just been a great experience.”

Bennett said she, too, was shocked by the regional win.

“Because the last time we played two games in one day, at the holiday tourney, we didn’t play so well,” she said. But from that point to the postseason, Bennett said, “Our conditioning is getting better and I think that we realize that it was important to win. Not that it wasn’t important to win the holiday tourney, but it’s a lot more important” to win in the postseason because once you lose, you’re done.

Looking back, Rieckers felt her team had a “really good” summer. But when the season began, “I kind of felt like something was missing, like we just weren’t quite gelling the way we needed to as a team.”

The coaching staff was looking for the girls to play a complete, 32-minute game.

“I really felt like as the season progressed with the schedule that we play lended a hand to making us be tougher and prepared for the tournament,” Rieckers said. “I think we’re peaking at the right time. I think our girls realize what happens when we play good team ball. It’s hard for a lot of teams to stop us.”

Rieckers said she believed in the team all along. Now, the Braves are one of the final four 2A teams still playing.

Following a 54-49 victory over Forest Park in the semifinals of the Class 2A Regional 12 at Forest Park on Saturday, the Brownstown Central Lady Braves met up with Covenant Christian that night for the title.

The teams were tied at 11 at the end of the first quarter, and then Brownstown held a 29-21 lead at halftime.

In the third quarter, though, Brownstown struggled handling the ball, turning it over six times, including three in the final 2:30, and the Braves were outscored 15-10. Covenant Christian was within 39-36 entering the final period of play.

The teams went through one tie and four lead changes in the fourth quarter. After a 43-all score at the 5-minute mark of the fourth quarter, Covenant Christian took a one-point lead twice. But then Brownstown went on a 7-0 run and made big defensive shots late in the game for a 54-47 victory.

Sammie Bane led the Braves with 16 points, followed by Katelyn Shoemaker with 13 and Maria Allen with 12.

Covenant Christian's Micah Pollard scored 11 of her 13 points in the second half, while Makayla Siebold also had 13 and LaNayah Pollard finished with 11.

The Braves had three players in double figures in the first regional game, too.

Brownstown's win over Forest Park set a school record for girls basketball for most wins in a season, and the Braves' win in the championship game set their season record at 22-5.

They will meet Winchester in Saturday's semistate, which will either be at Bedford or Southport. That's expected to be announced on Sunday, so check ihsaa.org for that information.

Winchester defeated Northeastern 78-48 in the semifinals of the Lawrence Regional and Indian Creek 70-57 in the championship, setting its season record at 21-4.

Forest Park, which had won five in a row at home, finished 17-8. The Spartans (13-10) made huge strides after posting a record of 16-51 mark the three previous seasons.

The Brownstown High School girls' basketball team beat Covenant Christian 54-47 on Saturday night for its first Class 2-A regional championship since 1998.

The Braves (22-5) also won the regional in 1996.

FERDINAND — After battling through two tough games on Saturday, the Brownstown Central Lady Braves could call themselves regional champions.

The Braves led a majority of the semifinal game against the Class 2A Regional 12 host, Forest Park.

The Rangers took a two-point lead late in the third quarter before Hailey Brown hit a 3-pointer for Brownstown right before the buzzer sounded, and the Braves held tight in the fourth quarter for a 59-54 victory.

That put Brownstown into the championship game that night against Covenant Christian, which claimed a 40-29 win over South Knox in the other semifinal game.

The teams were knotted at 11 after one period of play, and Brownstown held a 29-21 lead at halftime. Covenant Christian then forced Brownstown into six turnovers and outscored the Braves 15-10 in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 39-36.

There was one tie and four lead changes in the fourth quarter. The score was 43-all at the 5-minute mark before the teams went back-and-forth with one-point leads, and then Brownstown scored seven straight points and made some big defensive stops down the stretch for a 54-47 victory.

“We talked all along about a lot of times games are games of momentum, and we knew that both teams would battle back and come at us,” Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “We just needed to keep our composure, and I really felt like against Forest Park, once we could get to the free-throw line, that was beneficial to us because we do have the good free-throw shooters.

“(Against Covenant Christian), we felt like if we could spread them out a little bit at the end, and they have quickness, but we have a couple players that have some quickness, too, and we could take them to the basket.”

Forest Park had a height advantage, including three girls at 5-foot-10 and one at 6 foot, while Covenant Christian had speed.

Covenant Christian took an 11-8 lead at 1:27 of the first quarter on Makayla Seibold’s 3-pointer, but Brownstown’s Sammie Bane matched that on the Braves’ next possession for a tie game after eight minutes of play.

The Braves’ Maria Allen opened the second quarter with a three-point play, and later, when the Warriors were within 18-17, the Braves responded with six straight points, forcing a Covenant Christian timeout. Brownstown managed an eight-point lead at halftime.

After only scoring two points in the first half, Warriors senior Micah Pollard came out in the third quarter in full force. Brownstown built a 10-point lead midway through the period and held a 37-29 advantage before Pollard converted a three-point play and made another basket for a three-point game at 1:17.

Allen made her third basket of the quarter at 47 seconds, and Pollard banked in a runner in the final seconds to pull her team within 39-36.

The Warriors applied some full-court pressure in the fourth quarter to try and rattle the Braves. It worked for a while until Brownstown broke through and had scores by Brown, Bane and Kaylee Bennett, making it a 52-47 game with less than a minute to go.

Covenant Christian missed four shot attempts in the final 1:15, one of which was blocked by Brown, and Brownstown grabbed the rebound each time.

“We were getting a little excited at some point,” Allen said of when the Warriors applied pressure, “but we just kept telling each other we needed to calm down, we’re fine, we can do this. We knew they could do it or that they were going to do it. Once we figured it out, we were fine.”

When the Warriors made their final push, Rieckers called a timeout. How her team responded, she said, was important.

“A couple quick baskets by them and suddenly we’re standing there (with) kind of that shock look, and I said we just have to refocus on what we need to do and we’ll be fine,” she said.

“We talked about the fact that they would go on a run and we talked about the fact that they had some players in foul trouble, several players had four, so we wanted to take advantage of that and attack them because we felt like a few of their players just weren’t quite as quick as what some of our players are.”

Bane led all scorers with 16 points, while Shoemaker had 13, Allen scored 10 and Bennett had seven points and a team-high 10 rebounds. After being outrebounded 40-18 against Forest Park, Brownstown had a 26-18 advantage over Covenant Christian.

Micah Pollard and Seibold finished with 13 points apiece and LaNayah Pollard had 11 for the Warriors, who ended the season with a record of 19-7.

Brownstown’s win over Forest Park set a school record for girls basketball for wins (21) in a season. After winning the championship game, the Braves are 22-5 and at 1 p.m. Saturday will play Winchester (21-4) in the Southport Semistate. The Golden Falcons defeated Northeastern 78-48 in a semifinal game of the Lawrence Central Regional, and then topped Indian Creek 70-57 in the championship game.

In the first four minutes of the semifinal game, there were six lead changes and two ties.
After Khloe Vonderheide’s basket tied the score at 10 at 4:18, Brownstown had a field goal by Bennett, a pair of free throws by Brown and a score by Bane for a six-point lead.

Brownstown held a 22-14 lead after one quarter of play, and Brown scored eight points to lead the Braves, while the Rangers’ Sarah Hopf scored 10 of her game-high 29 points.

Forest Park opened the second quarter with five unanswered points to make it a three-point game at 4:28. By that time, Brownstown was 0 of 4 from the field and had two turnovers.

The Braves then scored four straight points before Jordan Theising grabbed an offensive rebound off of a teammate’s missed free throw and put it back in, and Brownstown’s lead was trimmed to 27-26 with 1:36 remaining in the half.

Allen, Brown and Bane made free throws down the stretch for a 31-26 lead at the break.

Brownstown built an early seven-point lead in the third quarter off of Bane’s steal and lob to Allen for a layup at 7:11. Hopf, however, scored nine of her team’s 13 points in the quarter, and three free throws in the final two minutes gave her team a 39-37 lead.

Brown then hit her second trey of the game with three seconds left in the third for a 40-39 lead going into the fourth, and the Braves never lost the lead from that point.

The Rangers cut the deficit to two points at 5:05, but later, Shoemaker scored on an assist from Bennett at 1:15 and the Braves broke the Rangers’ press and Shoemaker bounced the ball to Bane for a layup and a 53-46 lead with 56 seconds to go.

Forest Park had two trips to the line between 15 and six seconds remaining in the game to pull within four each time, but Bane made her fifth and sixth free throws of the period in between those trips to lift the Braves.

Brown finished with 18 points, followed by Allen’s 17 and Bane’s 12.

Hopf had a double-double of 29 points and 13 rebounds, while Theising had 19 points and six rebounds. Nearly half of the Rangers’ 40 rebounds came on the offensive end. They finished the season with a 17-8 record.

Brownstown had three players in double figures in each game, and Rieckers said that has been important for the Braves all year.

 Semifinals
Forest Park 14 12 13 15-54
Brownstown 22 9 9 19-59
Brownstown Central (21-5): Maria Allen 7-10 2-3 17, Hailey Brown 5-15 5-6 18, Sammie Bane 2-5 8-10 12, Katelyn Shoemaker 2-5 0-0 4, Kaylee Bennett 3-10 1-4 8, Jenna Hackman 0-4 0-0 0, Kaley Wilkerson 0-1 0-0 0, Kourtney Settle 0-0 0-0 0, totals 19-50 16-23 59
Forest Park (17-8): Amanda Jacob 0-1 1-2 1, Chelsea Freyberger 0-0 0-0 0, Jordan Theising 5-21 7-11 19, Khloe Vonderheide 2-6 0-0 4, Sarah Hopf 9-21 11-14 29, Kylie Blessinger 0-4 1-2 1, Sami Hopf 0-2 0-1 0, Olivia Uebelhor 0-0 0-0 0, Kayla Smith 0-0 0-0 0, totals 16-55 20-30 54
3-point goals: Brownstown Central (Brown 3, Bennett, Allen), Forest Park (Theising 2)
Rebounds: Brownstown Central 18 (Bennett 3, Allen 3, Bane 3), Forest Park 40 (Sarah Hopf 13, Theising 6, Vonderheide 5)
Turnovers: Brownstown Central 7, Forest Park 12
Fouls: Brownstown Central 18 (fouled out: Bane), Forest Park 20

BROWNSTOWN — The combination of five solid starters and reliable bench players has carried the Brownstown Central Lady Braves basketball team all season.

That helped lead them to the school’s fifth girls basketball sectional title on Saturday, and coach Karla Rieckers expects that to remain the case this Saturday when the Lady Braves (20-5) take on Forest Park (17-7) in the second game of the Class 2A Regional 12 at Forest Park. The other game pits South Knox (13-9) against Covenant Christian (18-6).

“We’re all confident in each other,” junior Hailey Brown said of the starting five, which includes her, seniors Sammie Bane and Katelyn Shoemaker, junior Maria Allen and sophomore Kaylee Bennett. “And people coming off the bench are very strong also, and they always keep us up and have good confidence in each other. I think that’s the good thing with our team.”

That confidence, Brown said, starts at the tip-off.

“When we start out for a game, we always make eye contact with each other and say, ‘Hey, let’s go. We’ve got this,’” she said.

The Lady Braves had junior Kristen Mellencamp coming off the bench until she was injured with a few games remaining in the regular season. So that meant junior Jenna Hackman had to step up along with five other bench players.

“We’ve all had to pick up more of a role,” Hackman said of the bench players. “Everyone has to take up a new position and play more.”

Whenever she enters a came off the bench, Hackman said, “I’m not a big shooting threat, so more than likely, I just want to try to pick up on defense, come out there and get the team going. I like coming off the bench because you get the team going and you aren’t thought of as one of the main people. I like it because you get to show what you can do.”

Hackman added that it’s important that the starters trust the people coming off the bench and know that they can step up and fill a role.

Having everyone in sync is going to be important as the Braves progress into the postseason. Rieckers has had her team preparing for Forest Park all week.

“Forest Park plays a variety of defenses,” she said. “They’ll play a 3-2 zone, a little bit of 1-2-2 zone and then they also on occasion will play some man. We’ve been really working on offenses versus a zone and just moving the ball.”

Looking at game film of the Rangers, Rieckers noted their shooter, senior Jordan Theising, as well as one of their post players, senior Sarah Hopf.

“We’ve tried to be aware of where the 3-point shooter is for them. (Theising) can really get hot,” Rieckers said. “They’ve got some size (three at 5-foot-10 and one at 6 foot), so we wanted to talk about rebounding and blocking out, not just staying in front of a person, but getting a body on them.”

With the Rangers’ size, Rieckers said she would like to see her team get its transition game going.

“That’s something that we’ve wanted to do all year, get up and down the floor, and we feel like we can do that,” she said. “That’s something we definitely want to do is push the ball and try to get them into a transition game.”

The main thing, Rieckers said, is for the Braves to keep doing what they’ve been doing.

“Here toward the end of the season and in sectional, if you take away the first quarter against Clarksville, we’re really coming together as a team,” she said. “I think we’re moving the ball well, we’re doing a better job of finding the open person and scoring and obviously with having four people (score) in double figures, almost five, that’s a positive for us.”

Winning regional will require individuals pulling together to achieve the team goal. Brownstown hasn’t claimed a regional title in girls basketball since 1998, and the only other time was in 1996.

“I need to keep confidence up in my shot, and I want to make all my free throws,” Brown said. “My team goal is to keep everybody else up as well as myself. We just need to keep our heads up and go in there and go strong.”

Hackman is approaching it like any other game, and it’s important for all of her teammates to do that, too.

“We are going into it with nothing to lose,” she said, “so we just approach it like a normal game.”

Rieckers said the team has had a good week of practice.

“They’ve had a good attitude, they seem confident and we will just take it one game at a time,” she said. “If we bring our game and play the best we possibly can, we’ll be satisfied with that because we’ll have good results.”

A big factor at sectional was fan support, Rieckers said, and she expects to have that again this week.

CLARKSVILLE — Saturday is a day Sammie Bane will long remember.

Not only did the Brownstown Central senior lead her team with 18 points, including nine free throws in the fourth quarter, to help the Lady Braves defeat Austin 53-49 in the Class 2A Sectional 47 championship game at Clarksville, she also surpassed the 1,000-point mark in her basketball career.

Going into the game, Bane needed 14 points to reach 1,000. In the final 1:27 of Saturday’s game, she went 6 of 6 from the line, which provided a big lift for her team and pushed her to 1,004 points. She is only the fifth Lady Brave to accomplish that feat — and her career hasn’t ended yet.

“It’s just like a double whammy,” Bane said after winning sectional and then finding out she had eclipsed 1,000 points. “I didn’t even know that I was that close, and then to come in and just play your heart out and to hear this, it’s exciting.”

Reaching that feat, she said, required hard work and dedication, but she prefers to put her team first.

“On our team, we worry about our team first, and then the scoring comes, so you just have to work for it,” Bane said. “I just do whatever it takes to win. I’m not worried about how many points I score or how many points anybody scores. As long as when we look up at the scoreboard, we’re ahead.”

It was Brownstown’s fifth girls basketball sectional title and first since 2004. The Lady Braves also won in 1996, 1997 and 1998.

Three of the past four Sectional 47s have come down to Austin and Brownstown, and the Eagles, who won last year’s 2A crown, were looking to make it four straight.

Early on, however, Brownstown had the edge, scoring the first five points of the game, and then leading 12-2 after Maria Allen’s feed to Kaylee Bennett for a 3-pointer from the right wing at 3:43.

Austin’s Jessie Davidson came up with a steal and took the ball in, scored and was fouled, but she missed the free throw at 2:12 and it was 12-4 heading into the second quarter. Austin had seven turnovers in the first quarter, while Brownstown had four.

After Shantel Gray made a pair of free throws and had a putback for the Eagles to make it a four-point game, the Braves had back-to-back drives by Bane. About two minutes later, Kelly Hollan’s free throws pulled Austin to within 18-14.

Jenna Hackman then scored five of the Braves’ eight straight points, including a three-point play with 1:45 left in the half to put Brownstown ahead 26-14. Gray nailed a 3-pointer at the top of the key at the 1-minute mark, and the score was 26-17 at halftime.

“In games in the past, we’ve kind of been up-and-down that first couple minutes,” Bane said.

“But the past two games, Paoli and this, we came out strong right from the beginning, and that’s what we had to do to put (the Eagles) down early, that way we would have that cushion if they came back because we knew it was going to be a game of runs.”

Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers agreed coming out strong was key.

“We knew that we needed to be focused and come out mentally prepared and ready to go,” she said, “because Austin is a team that was just as hungry as us and wanted to win as well, so we needed to make sure that we were ready to go.”

At 3:53 of the third quarter, Hailey Brown was fouled as she released a 3-point shot, and she made all three to give Brownstown its biggest lead of the night at 37-24. Austin then scored six straight points, and at 37 seconds made it a five-point game on its third three-point play of the quarter.

Then, in the final seconds of the third, Allen connected on her second field goal of the quarter for a 40-33 lead going into the fourth.

Davidson, a sophomore, continued to be a force for Austin in the fourth quarter, as she had a free throw and three baskets, including one at 2:22 to set the score at 47-42.

Then, it got interesting.

The Eagles fouled the Braves on the next possession, but Brownstown missed the one-and-one. Samantha Wooten converted a layup and then Hollan stole the ball on the inbounds play and laid it in the basket, making it a one-point game and sending the Austin crowd into a frenzy.

Thankfully for Brownstown, when Bane was fouled twice, at 1:27 and 13 seconds, she shut out the noise from the Eagle faithful and calmly sank her free throws. Austin missed a field goal and three 3s down the stretch, and one of those 3-point attempts was partially blocked by Allen with five seconds on the clock.

Bane grabbed the rebound and was immediately fouled and made two more free throws for a 53-46 advantage. Davidson then launched a 3 from between the mid-court and 3-point lines and made it, but it was as the buzzer sounded.

“I knew I could do it. I just had to focus,” Bane said of making her free throws. “The crowd was going crazy, but I just had to block everything out. The coaches always say it’s a process. You have your process in your mind, and that’s why I always have the same routine. It’s always spin the ball twice, bounce it three times and shoot, so I was just thinking of the process.”

Rieckers was glad to see her team maintain composure in the final 1:30.

“(Austin) went on that run a little bit, and we kind of had it in our mind, didn’t get a call here or there the way we wanted to,” she said, “but I was really proud of how we turned around and responded at that point. When it got to be a one-point game…we’ve got to stay focused, stay calm and just take care of the basketball.”

The Braves did all three to secure the win.

Joining Bane in double figures were Bennett, who finished with 11 points and five rebounds, and Allen, who had 10 points. Katelyn Shoemaker had six points and a team-high eight rebounds.

Austin’s Davidson led all scorers with 21 points, and she pulled down six boards. Seniors Hollan and Gray each had nine points, and Gray added nine rebounds before fouling out with 1:27 remaining in the game.

This is Rieckers’ fourth year as head coach, and it’s her first sectional title.

“Overall, it’s a group effort,” she said. “I’ve had a lot of support in getting here. I’ve had great assistant coaches, and I don’t feel like it’s a win for this year. I feel like it’s a win for our entire program from when I started four years ago trying to build a foundation of where we wanted to get.”

Brownstown has been close to a sectional title in recent years, and this time finally broke through.

“Sam and Kate to be four-year letter winners, and to have it happen for them is just a great feeling,” Rieckers said. “It’s something we wish we could have done for our previous teams as well, but it’s a win for the whole program. Those kids that have graduated since I’ve been here are still very much considered part of our program and part of the success that we have today.”

Bane and Shoemaker, who are the only seniors on the team, won volleyball sectionals all four years, but they had never won a basketball sectional. That all changed on Saturday.

“It means a lot. It’s four years of hard work is what it is for me and Kate,” Bane said. “This is what we’ve been waiting for for four years. This is what we’ve worked for, and we just deserve it. It’s our time.”

The Braves (20-5) now shift their focus to Forest Park (17-7), which defeated Evansville Mater Dei 65-52 on Saturday on the Rangers’ floor. Forest Park also will play host to the regional.

Heidi Rochner (1995-98) 1,401

Crystal Combs (1991-94) 1,191

Leah Wischmeier (1998-2001) 1,099

Andrea Spurgeon (1993-96) 1,046

Bane passes 1,000 points

Trailing by 10 points with just under four minutes left in Saturday's game, the defending Class 2-A state champion Lady Eagles put together a furious rally that fell just short as the Lady Braves held on to win 53-49 for the Clarksville Sectional title.

Brownstown never trailed, but its lead was down to 47-46 when senior guard Sammie Bane took over, hitting six straight free throws over the final 1:27 to put the game out of reach. Austin's Jessie Davidson sank a three-pointer at the buzzer.

"We just had to stay focused," Brownstown coach Kayla Rieckers said. "We knew this would be a game of runs."

The Lady Eagles fell behind early and faced double-digit deficits throughout the game but were never out of it. Trailing 41-33 in the opening minute of the fourth quarter, they scored four unanswered points to make it 41-37 with 5:41 left.

As they had all night, the Lady Braves responded. Two free throws and a field goal by Bane, bookending Maria Allen's steal and fast-break layup, gave Brownstown a 47-37 cushion with 3:54 to play.

Austin was down but hardly out. Five unanswered points by Davidson started a 9-0 run by the Lady Eagles, capped by a four-point flurry in four seconds. Samantha Wooten scored at the 2:04 mark, and Kelly Hollan followed with a steal and layup at 2:00 to make it 47-46.

After a Brownstown turnover, the Lady Eagles had a chance to take their first lead of the game but couldn't convert, and the Lady Braves took advantage. Bane made two free throws with 1:27 remaining and four more in the final 13 seconds to make it 53-46.

No. 12-ranked Brownstown got off to a fast start in the game, leading 12-2 after Kaylee Bennett's three-pointer with 3:45 left in the first quarter. It was 12-4 going into the second.

In what was to become a pattern, Austin made a run in the second quarter. Trailing 18-14 after Hollan got a steal and hit two free throws with 2:35 left in the half, the Lady Eagles faltered. Brownstown responded with an 8-0 run capped by Bennett's three-pointer and Jenna Hackman's three-point play. That made it 26-14 at the 1:45 mark, and the Lady Braves led 26-17 at the break.

Brownstown built a 37-24 lead after Hailey Brown was fouled on a three-point attempt and hit all three free throws with 3:53 left in the third quarter. Austin got within 38-33 after a three-point play by Hollan with 37 seconds left in the quarter. It was 40-33 going to the fourth.

Bane had 18 points to lead Brownstown (20-5). No.18 Austin, which finished 15-9, was paced by Davidson's 21.

CLARKSVILLE — After getting off to a slow start in their sectional opener on Wednesday night, the Brownstown Central Lady Braves knew they had to up the tempo of the game and play better on Friday.

The Braves had to play Paoli for the second time in eight days, so they knew what to expect. As it turned out, the Braves came into the game focused and ready to play and it showed, as they put together a solid four quarters and earned a trip to the sectional championship with a 70-56 win over the Rams.

Brownstown, now 19-5, will face Austin (15-8) in the finals at 7 p.m. today. The Braves claimed a 75-67 overtime win over the Eagles on Dec. 11.

“I really felt like we set the tone early,” Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “We talked about being mentally focused, and I felt in the locker room before the game, they were focused and came out and did what they needed to do.

“I think for the most part we played well for 32 minutes, but I think there was a short span there where we got a little bit rattled and got some fouls called on us, but I will take this kind of effort any day.”

Paoli jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the first quarter, but Jenna Hackman came off the bench for Brownstown and knocked down a 3-pointer to tie the game at 7. After the Rams retook the lead at 9-7, Hackman ignited the Braves on a 10-0 run, and they never looked back.

Hackman hit a runner at 2:53, Sammie Bane hit two free throws and Katelyn Shoemaker, Bane and Maria Allen all had baskets. Allen’s basket came off of an outlet pass from Kaylee Bennett for a 17-9 lead. The Rams’ Rachel Manship ended the run with a basket, and the Braves led 17-11 after one quarter.

“I think it turned the tide for us,” Rieckers said of the 10-0 run. “Paoli is a quality ballclub and we needed to make sure we wanted to go on a run because we knew they would respond later, and they did. Games like this have highs and lows and you have to take advantage when things are going your way, and when things don’t go your way, you have to sustain and be able to play through it.”

The Braves got the lead to double digits in the second quarter when Bane knocked down a basket for a 21-11 lead at 6:36. After the Rams got back to within eight, Bennett hit an open 3-pointer for a 24-13 advantage. Hailey Brown gave the Braves their biggest lead of the second quarter by hitting a 3-pointer.

Kourtney Settle then hit a basket and got fouled, but missed her free throw, and the Braves led 32-18 at the break.

Allen was a quiet leader for the Braves in the first half and came up big in the second half.

“We came out really hard tonight,” Allen said. “We played a complete 32 minutes. We just wanted to come in and play hard and block out. It was a rough game. Also, we have had at least three or four players all year score double figures. When everyone keeps scoring, it’s important to us.”

Allen scored the first two points of the third quarter and Brown hit back-to-back 3-pointers for a 40-18 lead, but the Rams responded with a 7-0 run to trim the lead to 15. Shoemaker stopped the run with a basket.

Brownstown’s biggest lead of the game was 23 points at 53-30 when Bane hit a basket to close out the third quarter.

The Braves shot 6 of 10 from the 3-point line and finished the game 27 of 57 overall from the floor, and they were 10 of 18 from the foul line. The Rams shot 17 of 62 from the floor, but were 19 of 26 from the line.

Bane was one of four Braves in double figures with 17 points, while Shoemaker had 16, Allen 12 and Brown 11.

“I couldn’t be more proud of everyone’s effort,” Rieckers said. “Even if the scoring wasn’t there, we still had rebounding and defense. It was really a team effort.”

McKinzie Laswell of the Rams led all scorers with 21 points and Sophie Sears had 16, making 10 of 12 from the foul line.

The Braves won the rebounding battle 39-35 and Bennett collected 12. She also had six blocked shots, dished out five assists and had six steals.

For the third time in four years, Brownstown and Austin will battle it out in the finals. The Eagles defeated Providence 57-43 in the first game on Friday night.

CLARKSVILLE — The way Wednesday’s first-round sectional game between Brownstown Central and Clarksville began, it appeared Clarksville was going to make it a battle.

Brownstown made only two of its 12 shot attempts, and the Lady Braves found themselves behind 11-5 with 1:37 remaining in the first quarter before trailing 12-8 at the end of one.

But over the next two quarters, Brownstown outscored the Class 2A Sectional 47 host team 51-17, gaining some big separation in the third quarter. The Braves (18-5) collected a 70-40 victory to advance to Friday’s semifinal game against Paoli (17-4), which defeated Eastern (Pekin) 49-46 in Wednesday’s other first-round game.

“The last time we played (the Generals), they came out strong, and this time they came out strong again and we just weren’t ready, I guess,” Lady Braves senior Katelyn Shoemaker said. “The beginning was just horrible for us. We finally picked it up after (coach Karla) Rieckers got us going, and we got ourselves going.”

Brownstown just didn’t seem ready on either end of the floor. Defensively, the Braves allowed the Generals’ Tionna Peters to drive for three baskets and make a free throw to lead her team in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, though, the Braves returned to form by using pressure defense to force nine turnovers.

Brownstown had brief leads early in the first quarter, but then Clarksville held it the rest of the first eight minutes. A basket by Kierstin Hall in the second quarter gave Clarksville a 16-10 lead, but Brownstown responded with 14 straight points, kicked off by Maria Allen’s steal and layup at 5:40 and ending on Shoemaker’s basket in transition on an assist from Sammie Bane at 2:06.

For the remainder of the half, the Braves had an 8-5 scoring edge and led 32-21 at halftime.

“Our offense was better, we drove more, we were just more intense in everything,” Shoemaker said of the difference in the second quarter. “We just drove to the basket because they were fouling us, and defensively, we just stayed straight.”

Of the first quarter, Rieckers said the Braves just weren’t mentally focused.

“We’ve always talked about our offense feeds off of our defense,” Rieckers said. “Our defense, I thought, was not the intense pressure that we needed to have, and I really felt like at the (end of the first) quarter, we stressed that and we felt like if we get our defense going, our offense will feed off of that, and certainly I think that showed.”

The intensity from the second quarter carried over to the first two and a half minutes of the third quarter. Allen and Hailey Brown each had a field goal and two free throws and Kaylee Bennett had a basket during a 10-1 spurt, building a 42-22 lead and forcing Clarksville into a timeout.

Out of the break, the Braves scored six more unanswered points, and they took a 59-29 lead into the final eight minutes of the game.

Shoemaker finished with a game-high 18 points, and she made it a double-double with 11 rebounds. Bane and Allen had 15 and 12 points respectively, while Bennett tallied 11 rebounds along with six points.

Peters was the only Clarksville player in double figures, scoring 16 before fouling out with 3:03 remaining in the game. She had her fourth foul at the 5:45 mark of the third quarter and only scored four points in the second half. Hall pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds along with scoring eight points.

Going into Friday’s game, Shoemaker and the Braves realize they will need a solid start against Paoli. Last week, Brownstown defeated the Rams 57-53, but it took a strong second-half effort to pull it out.

“To come out strong and just mentally be ready,” Shoemaker said of what it’s going to take in the semifinals, “because we weren’t physically and mentally ready this game.”

Rieckers seconded that thought.

“On Friday, we can’t have that kind of start,” she said. “When you play quality teams such as (Paoli), we could have been down 15, 20 points and it would be hard to dig out of that hole. Not that it’s not possible, but we have to be mentally focused and mentally prepared to play when the ball is tipped.”

PAOLI — Through two and a half quarters of Thursday’s game between Brownstown Central and Paoli, it was a toss-up for which team would come out on the winning side.

But Brownstown had a run late in the third quarter, and then an 11-0 run going from the end of the third quarter into the fourth was a turning point for the Lady Braves. They built a 55-45 lead on two free throws by Sammie Bane at 5:49, and after several missed opportunities by the Rams, Brownstown held on for a 57-53 victory.

The Braves missed two free throws on one-and-ones in the final minute. The Rams scored off of the first missed free throw. After the second missed free throw by the Braves with 31 seconds to go, McKenzie Laswell drove to the basket for the Rams and missed but grabbed her own rebound and dished the ball to Rachel Manship for a four-point game.

Out of a timeout, Paoli applied full-court pressure and Brownstown fumbled the ball at half-court. The Rams called another timeout with 15 seconds left in the game, but out of that break, they waited a little too long to get a shot off, and Laswell missed as time expired.

“We had really good ball movement, and then we all had really good shooting, so I think we stepped up a little bit,” said Braves sophomore Kaylee Bennett, who scored all 10 of her points in the second half. Her basket at 6:01 of the fourth quarter capped off her team’s run, setting the score at 53-43.

“Usually we want to push in the first three minutes of the third quarter, but we need to push at the end as well,” Bennett said, “so I think we finally showed up.”

Brownstown coach Karla Rieckers was proud of her team’s second-half performance. The Braves were 12 of 24 from the field compared to the Rams’ 10 of 29.

“We didn’t feel like we had done the things that we quite needed to in the first half to take care of the ball,” she said. “We made some unforced turnovers and some things like that, kind of out of our rhythm. But I thought in the second half, we stepped up and did a much better job.”

In the first quarter, Paoli relied on its size inside, getting the ball to 6-foot-1 senior Heather Clark and 6-foot-2 sophomore Kennedy Nelson. Nelson had seven points off of the bench and Clark had two in the first quarter, and Nelson’s score on an inbounds play at 18 seconds gave her team a 15-14 lead. Jenna Hackman sank two free throws in the final seconds for a one-point Brownstown lead.

Both teams’ shooting fell off in the second quarter, going a combined 10 of 30 from the field. The game was tied twice, and the Rams scored six straight midway through for a 26-20 lead, and after Hackman banked in a shot, Karson Stands knocked down a 3-pointer after missing her first four attempts for a 29-22 Paoli advantage at 1:34.

A few blocks down the stretch boosted the Braves, and they went on a 7-0 run behind a 3 from Maria Allen, a score inside off of an inbounds play by Katelyn Shoemaker and Bane’s assist to Kaley Wilkerson, tying the score at 29 at the break.

“One of their main scorers, Laswell, kind of got in foul trouble in the first half, and then (Paoli coach Dusty Cole) puts his two 6-foot players in there,” Rieckers said. “Obviously, if I had the height like that, I’d try to get the ball on the inside. Kennedy Nelson, she does a really nice job finishing around the basket, she’s got a nice little move, and we didn’t feel like our defense was quite shifting the way we needed to because they also had the threat of the 3-point shooters on the outside. We adjusted a few things at halftime, and I think that played to our advantage.”

Sophie Sears’ free throws at 4:38 of the third quarter gave Paoli a 38-33 advantage, but Brownstown had two scores from Bennett and Bane’s second trey of the game for a 40-38 Brownstown lead. The teams traded baskets, creating two more ties, before Sears made another free throw for a one-point lead at 25 seconds.

The Braves then ran off five straight points for a 47-43 edge going into the final period. The closest the Rams could get in the final period was the final margin, and Brownstown snapped Paoli’s eight-game winning streak.

While her team missed a couple of free throws down the stretch that could have made for a different outcome, Rieckers said it was good to see the girls hang tough.

“For the most part, we have a good free-throw shooting team,” Rieckers said. “Our percentage is good for the year, and we’ve got to be able to knock them down in that situation. But our girls hung in there and didn’t quit, and we’re proud of the effort that they gave. It’s one of those things that could go either way.”

Bane led the Braves with 16 points, while Shoemaker had 14 and Bennett 10.

For Paoli, Sears had 16 points and Nelson 13.

Allen drove to the basket in the final seconds and hit the game-winning shot for a 49-48 MSC win, improving the Lady Braves’ mark to 8-0 with one game remaining.

“A lot of other kids stepped up and really did a nice job for us. Maria certainly is capable of doing that,” Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “They listened and we executed everything the way we drew it up at timeouts. I was really pleased with how we hung in there and did the things that we needed to do to win.”

Shoemaker led the team with 14 points, while Allen and Hailey Brown each scored 10.
Heather Uhl led Corydon with 14 points, including four 3s, and Marie Rothrock finished with 12.

BROWNSTOWN — The atmosphere of a basketball game seems to change when it’s a conference battle.

That was the case on Thursday night between the Brownstown Central and North Harrison girls teams.

They combined for 19 turnovers in the first half, and Brownstown led by 10 points in the closing seconds of the first quarter and 2 minutes into the second, but some Lady Braves got into foul trouble and the team had to go away from its full-court pressure. That allowed the Cats to make it a seven-point game at halftime.

The Braves and Cats traded runs in the third quarter, but Brownstown pulled ahead by double digits at the end of three and only let North Harrison pull to within nine points once in the fourth. The Braves hit their free throws down the stretch for a 60-45 Mid-Southern Conference victory.

“(The coaches) always tell us the first 3 minutes of the third quarter are always crucial,” Lady Braves junior Maria Allen said. “Whoever picks that up is probably going to win the game. They told us to pick up our defense because when our defense plays better, we’re able to run our offense better.”

Fortunately for the Braves, they scored the first seven points of the third quarter and later answered a surge by the Cats midway through the period to maintain the lead.

Then, in the fourth quarter, shortly after North Harrison scored six straight and then pulled to within nine in the final 4 minutes, Brownstown was able to clean up at the foul line, making 5 of 7 down the stretch and 7 of 9 for the quarter.

“Our last game, we only shot 14 free throws, and the game before that we only shot eight, and we really need to get to the free-throw line more throughout the game,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. Her team finished 12 of 17 against the Cats. “We need to create that and get to the line because we have a good percentage.”

Hayley Renneker’s basket put North Harrison within 4-3 at 2:54 of the first quarter, but then Brownstown ran off eight straight points, kicked off by Kaylee Bennett’s putback and capped off with Allen’s assist to Jenna Hackman for a score underneath the basket at 35 seconds. The Braves committed six turnovers and the Cats eight, including five straight, in the period, which ended with a 15-5 Brownstown lead.

Early in the second quarter, the Braves had three players with two fouls, so the press backed off, which allowed the Cats to get the ball inside. After Katelyn Shoemaker’s basket at 3:38 made it a 22-15 Brownstown lead, North Harrison had a three-point play by Renneker and a putback by Hillary Fonda for a two-point game.

The Braves responded with five straight points, ending with Hackman’s two free throws with seven seconds left in the half, and that set the halftime score at 27-20. The Cats, though, edged the Braves 15-12 in the quarter.

“One of the things that our team tends to feed off of is when we can play full-court defense,” Rieckers said. “We had to back off of that with having a few players pick up some fouls. Then, we got to standing around a little bit in our half-court set of defense instead of really playing the intense defense the way we want to.
“We weren’t getting out on screens, we weren’t stepping over and helping and they set that screen on the elbow and drove around, and you have to react. It’s not just the person guarding the ball, it’s also the screener’s job to step out and make sure they are helping and hedging on their player.”

The Braves returned to familiar fashion in the third quarter, outscoring the visitors 10-2 for a 37-22 lead at 4:50. After a North Harrison timeout, the Cats scored seven straight, but the Braves answered with five in a row. Shoemaker’s third field goal at 1:07 of the third quarter made it 44-29, and Renneker’s putback in the final seconds pulled her team to within 13.

Then, in the fourth quarter, Brownstown held steady despite North Harrison’s spark at the 5:30 mark.

“We wanted to make sure, when we came out in the second half, to try to set the tone of what we wanted to do,” Rieckers said. “We also wanted to try to speed up the game, and North Harrison wanted to slow down the game. We tend to play better when we play at a faster pace, and so we really talked about pushing the ball, trying to get more of our transition game going, and I thought that was effective there for a little while.”

Sammie Bane led all scorers with 17 points, while Shoemaker had 15 and Allen had 10 points and eight rebounds. Bennett and Hackman each scored nine points, and Bennett had a game-high nine boards.

Renneker and Emily Giles led the Cats with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

SHELBYVILLE — Tuesday’s Brownstown Central-Southwestern (Shelby) girls basketball game had its share of runs.

A positive for Brownstown was when Southwestern made a run, the Lady Braves had an answer each time.

The Spartans’ Loren Smiley sank a 3-pointer and made a free throw to put her team within 58-52 with 4:35 remaining in the game. Southwestern had outscored Brownstown 7-2 at that point, and the Braves had allowed a sizeable lead to vanish.

Then, Sammie Bane did what any senior should be able to do — she put the game in her hands. She already had 22 points at halftime, and she added five more in the third quarter before sinking a 3-pointer and making layups off of a turnover and in transition after the Spartans’ final run to seal the game for the Braves. Brownstown returned home with a 69-53 win, its fourth straight.

Bane finished with a game- and season-high 34 points along with a team-leading eight rebounds.

Before Bane scored seven straight, coach Karla Rieckers called a timeout to give her team time to recollect itself. The Braves had 10 of their 22 turnovers in the fourth.

“Their big speech was defense and to pick up our defense because we let them score so many points in two minutes,” Bane said of the coaches’ words during the timeout. “We had to pick it back up, and I saw an opening and went for it. We started to calm down, took care of the basketball better and our defense picked up and we started getting back in our rhythm.”

Both teams finished with 22 turnovers, and Rieckers said that was too many.

“We really felt like a lot of those were unforced,” she said. “Not to take anything away from (Southwestern), but it was some bad passes, some lazy passes and taking some things that we shouldn’t do. I thought we got a little sloppy with the basketball.”

On the flipside, Rieckers said, the Braves had 21 assists on 29 field goals.

“We’ve been talking about making the extra pass, and I think that’s one of the instances tonight where we had some players that probably could have taken a shot and instead they made the extra pass,” Rieckers said. “Sam was the recipient of that and made a lot of nice shots and finished for us.”

Getting back to the runs, Brownstown scored eight straight points by 4:31 of the first quarter for a 12-5 lead, forcing a Southwestern timeout. The Spartans then had a 10-3 run for a 15-all score, and the teams traded baskets for another tie before Bane’s jumper at the free-throw line at 37 seconds made it a 19-17 game.

The Braves had their first double-digit lead of the night following 12 straight points to open the second quarter. That began with Maria Allen’s assist to Katelyn Shoemaker and capped off with Bane rebounding her own miss and putting it back in.

That gave Brownstown a 29-17 lead, but Southwestern’s 6-foot freshman, Oda Shackelford, ran off five straight points and Smiley added a free throw to pull within eight.

Brownstown then had a 4-0 run, Southwestern followed with five straight and the Braves closed out the quarter with seven in a row to jump ahead 45-28 at halftime. The Braves outscored the home team 26-11 in the second on 11-for-16 shooting, and they forced the Spartans into three turnovers in the final minute.

The teams’ runs subsided in the third period, and despite Brownstown leading by 19 points three times, Southwestern managed to outscore Brownstown 13-11 to make it 56-41 going into the fourth.

In the fourth, the game turned sour. There were a combined 15 turnovers, and Brownstown had two in the first 40 seconds that turned into four points for Southwestern, making it an 11-point game. Things really got interesting when Smiley scored four points in less than a minute, but Bane’s seven points and her pass to Jenna Hackman for a cut to the basket sent the lead back to 15 with 1:33 to go.

“Something that we as a team have talked about a lot is we get a lead and then we just don’t seem to put the game away,” Rieckers said. “One of the benefits at least so far is when a team has made a run, we usually respond and go on a run ourselves. So from that standpoint, it’s good, but we have to be able to finish because one of those times we may not be able to respond with a run. We just have to be able to go ahead and put teams away when we can.”

Along with Bane’s 34 points, Shoemaker had 12 and Hailey Brown 10.

Shackelford led her team with 16 points, while Tayler Britton had 10.

On Saturday, the Braves (14-3) will aim for redemption at Brown County. Brownstown suffered a 47-43 loss to the Eagles in the Toby Yoho Classic over the holiday break.

That forced the Jets into back-to-back turnovers twice in the second quarter, and they had 14 of their 24 turnovers in the final two quarters.

A 22-10 scoring advantage in the second quarter helped the Braves pull ahead by double figures and maintain the rest of the way for a 64-46 victory.

“Our press was very effective,” Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers said, “but also I was really pleased with the way we moved the ball offensively. According to our stats, we went into the locker room at halftime and it showed that we had 12 assists. One of the things we talked about is if we have the transition shot to take the transition shot, but if not, we need to work an offense, and we’ve not done that as well and I really thought tonight that (was better).”

Behind eight points from Hailey Brown, the Braves shot out to a 12-4 lead by 4:18 of the first quarter, and then Katelyn Shoemaker scored inside at 3:50 for the first double-digit lead of the game. But from that point, Hauser outscored the home team 8-3 for a 17-12 score at the end of one.

In the second quarter, the Braves applied just enough pressure to shake the Jets. They committed three turnovers just 1:30 into the quarter, and at the 5:44 mark, Jenna Hackman’s jumper made it 28-15, forcing the Jets into a timeout. Out of the break, though, it took Hauser nearly two and a half minutes to score.

Jets superstar Taylor Miller put back her own miss at 3:25, but her team was down 34-17. Shoemaker scored on an inbounds play and made a free throw in the final 1:18 of the half, giving Brownstown a 39-22 lead at halftime.

A steal and score by Shoemaker at 5:33 and a crosscourt pass from Brown to Shoemaker for a 3-pointer 33 seconds later gave Brownstown a 47-26 lead in the third period.

Late in the period, in a span of 14 seconds, Miller scored in transition and then came up with a steal and sent the ball to Payton Miller, who was fouled on the shot and made two free throws, and that made it a 47-35 game.

“For a spell there, we were kind of standing around,” Rieckers said. "They were daring us to take the outside shot, and we have to have the confidence to step up and do that.”

Hackman then made two free throws and Maria Allen grabbed a steal and dished the ball to Sammie Bane, who scored and was fouled. Her three-point play set the score at 52-35.

“Once we did drive to the basket and drew some fouls, I thought that helped, as well,” Rieckers said. “We kind of got away from looking at the basket and then trying to make that pass too much instead of when you have the opportunity, going ahead and taking the shot.”

The closest the Jets got in the final quarter was 13 on Miller’s free throws at 7:05. Brownstown was 8 of 10 from the line in the final period to help seal the deal.

The Braves had balanced scoring with Shoemaker’s 19 points, Bane’s 15 and Brown’s 14.

Miller led all scorers with 24 points, while Claire Dodd had 11 for the Jets.

“Miller, she’s an exceptional player,” Rieckers said. “Sammie Bane does a really nice job defensively, and (Miller) is just somebody hard to stop because she’s got a lot of good moves.”

Since the two teams met in the Toby Yoho Classic over the holiday break, Rieckers also knew the Jets could step out and hit 3-pointers. But in this game, the Jets were only 2 of 8 from that area.

Lady Braves remain undefeated in MSC

CHARLESTOWN — For a team that had a 1-10 record going into Saturday’s Mid-Southern Conference game against Brownstown Central, the Charlestown Lady Pirates sure didn’t play like it.

After falling behind 20-6 after eight minutes of play, the Pirates pulled within nine at the end of the next two quarters.

In the second half, though, five 3-pointers helped the Braves gain separation. They didn’t allow Charlestown to get any closer than 10 in the fourth quarter, and Brownstown improved to 6-0 in the MSC with a 70-58 victory.

That was a season high in points for the Pirates, who had games this year where they scored seven and 12 points. Charlestown fell to 0-5 in the MSC.

“They definitely came out and played hard and played well against us,” Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers said of the Pirates. “I had looked at my assistants during the game and asked them how have they only won one game because they certainly don’t look like a team that would win one game on their schedule.”

Maria Allen’s 3-pointer from the top of the key made it a 12-1 game at 3:07 of the first quarter, and it was 18-1 on Hailey Brown’s three-point play off of a Charlestown turnover. Brittany Bennison ended the Braves’ run with a putback at 1:43, and her team trailed by 14 at the end of one.

By 4:21 of the second quarter, Brownstown was 1 of 10 from the field and Charlestown scored five straight points to pull within 10. The Pirates made it a 35-26 game on Bennison’s free throws with 11 seconds remaining, and Sammie Bane then drove in the lane as time expired to give the Braves an 11-point lead at the break.

The teams finished the half with 13 fouls apiece, and the Braves were 5 of 10 from the line to the Pirates’ 9 of 14.

“I think we got a little complacent with our defense,” Rieckers said. “We got away from playing pressure defense, which we need to do, and you get up like that and you get a lead and you start to get a little lazy and start to stand around, which I thought we have a tendency to do.”

Out of halftime, however, the Braves’ defense kicked in gear and forced the Pirates into seven turnovers. Charlestown didn’t back down, as the Pirates were within eight on Bennison’s free throw at 6:50 and Taylor Thrasher’s score at 5:33.

The Braves’ outside shooting came alive in the third, with Bane and Kaylee Bennett each knocking down a 3-pointer and Jenna Hackman hitting two straight from the left wing in a span of 19 seconds by 3:01, with the second one pushing her team ahead 53-38.

Brownstown took a 55-43 lead into the fourth period, and that’s when the Braves didn’t let the Pirates inch any closer than 10.

“One of the things I was proud of today was our 3-point shooting,” Rieckers said. The Braves were only 7 of 19 from that area, but the ones they hit in the second half were big. “Teams are going to continue to play us zone unless we step out and take the shot. We have players that can step up and make the baskets, and they just have to have enough confidence in themselves to put the ball up. We had some players step up and make big 3s when we needed them to.”

One of them, Hackman, came off the bench and scored 10 points. She was one of four Lady Braves in double figures, as Bane led all scorers with 23 points, Allen had 12 and Brown 10.

Even though this was an MSC game, Hackman said the preparation didn’t change.

“We take each game as the same,” she said. “We don’t look at their record or anything. All week, we’ve been stressing intense defense, in your face, and that’s what we lacked in the rest of the quarters other than the first, so that’s pretty much what (the coaches) stressed the entire time.”

Bennison led the Pirates with a double-double of 18 points and 17 rebounds, and 10 of her points were from the free-throw line. She was the only Charlestown player in double figures.

The game was full of big numbers. The Pirates finished the game with 25 turnovers to the Braves’ eight. Brownstown was called for 27 of the game’s 50 fouls, and the Braves were 17 of 28 from the foul line and the Pirates were 23 of 37. And Charlestown outrebounded the visitors 45-31.

After her team fought off the determined Pirates, Rieckers said it was good to record another MSC win.

“That puts us at 6-0 in the conference with three games left, right where we need to be,” she said. “We just have to be prepared to play every single game because everybody’s going to come out and try to be the team that’s going to knock us off.”

BLOOMFIELD — Most teams spend their Christmas break practicing to get ready for the second half of their season, but not the Brownstown Central Lady Braves, as they played four games in two days at the Toby Yoho Classic in Bloomfield.

On the first day, the Braves went 1-1, and on the second day, the Braves began with a 65-47 win over Hauser, but fell to Brown County 47-43 in the nightcap as they finished the tourney with a 2-2 record.

Jenna Hackman hit a free throw at 4:22 to cut Brown County’s lead to 37-33, and Sammie Bane then knocked down two free throws six seconds later. The Braves implemented a full-court press and the Eagles turned the ball over, but Brownstown couldn’t capitalize.

After Brown County’s Sasha Robinson hit a layup, Bane came back with two more free throws and the Braves hit the Eagles with full-court press again and forced another turnover. The Eagles then led 44-39 when Shelby Hundley converted a three-point play.

The lead increased to six, but Bane cut the lead in half at 46-43 with a 3-pointer. Hundley then iced the win with a free throw with 2.9 seconds remaining.

“We entered this tourney to play games over Christmas, and we needed to play teams that will help us get stronger down the stretch,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “We saw some things over the last four games that we need to go back on and improve in the second half of the season. We get a lot of games in a short period of time and we maybe had a little bit of fatigue in the end, but we have to step up because they were in the same situation.”

There were four lead changes in the first quarter, but the Eagles led 10-8 after eight minutes. Maria Allen hit a field goal to start the second quarter to give the Braves an 11-10 lead, but that was their final lead of the game.

The Eagles went on a 5-0 run, but Hackman’s 3-pointer at 4:22 cut it to one. The Eagles took a 21-16 lead into halftime.

The Braves turned the ball over 11 times in the first half and were 5 of 23 from the field.

“We were missing some shots under the basket, which are typical shots for us to hit,” Rieckers said. “We got a little frustrated, but they’ve got a lot of nice players on their team and they had a couple of players who stepped out and hit a 3.
“The one thing this tourney showed was that we need to work on our defensive intensity. Also, when we get down, we can’t quit and we have to pick it up and show that intensity. We didn’t quite have that where we needed this afternoon.”

Bane struggled in the first half, as she was 0 of 4 from the floor, but in the second half, she scored 14 points on 2 of 4 shooting from the floor and 9 of 10 from the free-throw line. She led the team in scoring, and after the game, she received a plaque for being named to the all-tourney team.

“I am happy about being named to the all-tourney team and am proud to represent my team, but I think there was more than me that deserved to be on it,” Bane said. “I think all of us during one of the four games showed enough to be on the all-tourney team. I would gladly give this to anybody on my team. I think we had a slow start against Brown County and got behind. Our defense wasn’t quite there, but we just need to keep working.”

Katelyn Shoemaker scored 12 points in the loss.

The Eagles’ Kami Graber was 9 of 17 from the floor and 7 of 14 from the line for 26 points.

Brownstown Central 65, Hauser 47

In the morning game, the Braves got off to another slow start and Hauser won the quarter 14-13. But in the second quarter, Brownstown picked up its offense and defense and outscored the Jets 18-9 to take a 31-23 halftime advantage.

The Braves made 24 field goals against the Jets, and Allen scored 16 points to lead the way. Bane was the second player in double figures with 11.

“I thought our transition game was well and we were able to push the ball and get it out,” Rieckers said. “Scoring in transition is the easiest to score by, and we were able to do that. We matched up pretty well with Taylor Miller, and we held her under 20.”

Both teams were even in the third quarter with 18 points apiece, but the Braves outscored the Jets 16-6 in the fourth quarter to secure the win.

One positive fact the Braves can take from the tourney is that they will see Hauser and Brown County again during the month of January, and these games were good indications of what they have to do.

“It showed us some things we definitely need to work on,” Rieckers said. “We will go back and watch film as a team and see where we can improve and what we need to do. We need to work on our zone offense, and Brown County plays a matchup zone. We need to see the floor better and hit the people in the open spots.”

BLOOMFIELD — The Brownstown Central Lady Braves basketball team broke away from play in the Mid Southern Conference and competed in the 11-team Toby Yoho Classic in Bloomfield on Tuesday.

The Braves played twice on the first day and they lost to Edgewood 74-66 in the first game of pool play, and in the second game they rebounded for a 48-42 win over Clay City.

The Braves looked comfortable in the first half against the Lady Eels as they owned a 30-16 halftime lead. However, in the third quarter, the Eels used a 9-0 run to cut the Braves, lead to 30-25, before Katelyn Shoemaker ended the run with a layup. Shoemaker hit another basket to give her team a 34-28 lead.

Allie Miller hit a 3-pointer for Clay City and Abby Reed converted an old-fashioned 3-point play with 1:11 left in the quarter to tie the score at 34-all. The Eels outscored the Braves 18-4 and forced the Braves to turn the ball over six times.

Carmela Roeschlein scored eight points for the Eels in the third quarter and BC coach Karla Rieckers knew she could score.

“We knew from watching her (Roeschlein) that she was the player to stop,” Rieckers said. “We were watching them play in the afternoon and she scored 21 of their 38 points. She likes to drive and she is quick, and we knew she is somebody we had to watch.

“They adjusted at halftime and in the second half she stepped out and hit some 3-pointers. We weren’t able to get around our screens and she got away from us for a while. We needed to adjust and get back to her in the fourth quarter.”

Sammie Bane got the Braves going in the fourth quarter with five straight points for the 39-34 lead. The Eels got to within one point on two different occasions, but never led. At 3:42 of the fourth quarter, the Braves had missed four straight free throws until Kristen Mellencamp hit one for a 42-40 lead. Jenna Hackman hit two free throws for a 44-40 lead.

After Clay City hit two free throws, Bane closed out the scoring with four straight points.

Bane scored eight of her 13 points in the fourth quarter.

“They (Clay City) came out in a zone in a 2-3 in the second half and we just weren’t moving the ball as quick,” Rieckers said. “We tend to take a lead and then we get comfortable and got lazy with our passes and I told the girls they are athletic and they are going to steal the passes, and that we have to still make strong passes.

“We didn’t come out in the third quarter like we wanted to and that may have had something to do with us playing a tough game in the morning. That is something we want to work on.”

In the opening quarter, the Eels led 4-2 when Bane scored a basket to tie the game at 4-4. Shoemaker had a field goal and Bane collected a steal and lay-up at 4:35 to give the Braves an 8-4 lead. Roeschlein drained a 3-pointer to cut the lead to one, but the Braves closed out the quarter with a 10-8 run to lead 18-7 after the first quarter.

The Braves were 7 of 17 shooting in the first quarter and the Eels were 3 of 13. The Braves finished the game 18 of 48 and the Eels were 13 of 49.

The Braves also outscored Clay City 12-9 in the second quarter to lead by 14 at the break.

“We thought it was real important to come out and try to make a statement early,” Rieckers said. “We knew from watching Clay City earlier that they are a scrappy team, they can score points, and we wanted to come out and set the tempo of the game by playing at a fast pace and put points on the board.”

Bane and Shoemaker each scored 13 points for the Braves.

Also, the Braves won the battle of the boards with a 40-29 edge. Kaylee Bennett led the Braves with nine rebounds.

Roeschlein led the Eels with 18 points.

In the Braves’ first game of the tourney, they outscored the Mustangs 14-11 in the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Mustangs found an offensive rhythm by scoring 24 points to lead 35-30. Edgewood also scored 24 third quarter points to slowly pull away from the Braves.

Both teams were hitting shots as the Mustangs shot 66 percent and the Braves shot 53 percent from the floor.

“We need to work on defense from the first game we played,” Rieckers said. “You can’t give up 74 points in a game and they had a girl that scored 25 points against us and she is a real nice player. Typically they average 48 points a game offensively. Some of that contributes to them shooting 66 percent, but also goes back to defense.”

The Mustangs went to the free throw line 31 times and the Braves attempted 18 free throws.

Bane and Allen fouled out for the Braves in the fourth quarter.

Shoemaker led the Braves with a 30-point performance. Bane had 13 points.

The Braves finished with 14 steals and 16 assists against Edgewood.

The Braves (9-2) will begin the second day of the tourney against Hauser at 9:30 a.m.

Box Score

SELLERSBURG — When shots aren’t falling in a tight game, it sometimes comes down to which team makes its free throws.

In Saturday’s matchup between two undefeated Mid-Southern Conference teams, Brownstown Central made 24 of 30 from the line and Silver Creek made 18 of 23. Both were solid percentages, but Class 2A No. 4 Brownstown (7-1) connected when it counted most to improve to 5-0 in the MSC with a 48-45 victory. Silver Creek (6-3) dropped to 4-1.

With 36 seconds remaining in the game, Sammie Bane sank two free throws for a 44-41 Brownstown lead. Braves coach Karla Rieckers then told her team not to foul on the ensuing possession, but they fouled Molly Voyles on her drive to the hoop and she made the basket and the free throw for a tie game at 28 seconds.

Silver Creek’s pressure on the next play forced Brownstown to turn the ball over, but Voyles’ jumper was off and the Braves’ Maria Allen grabbed the rebound and was immediately fouled. She calmly made both free throws for a two-point lead at 17 seconds.

Carissa Brown missed a jumper on the next play, but Silver Creek teammate Alex Tinsley grabbed the offensive board and was fouled on a shot.

Tinsley made the first free throw, and then Rieckers called a timeout. Out of the breather, Tinsley’s second attempt bounced off of the back of the rim and into Katelyn Shoemaker’s hands.

Shoemaker was fouled by Brown with 1.8 seconds remaining in the game, and she made both at the line. Voyles then received the inbounds play and launched the ball, but it went just right and short of the goal, and Brownstown held on.

“There was about one second left and I got the foul, so it wasn’t huge on the free throws at the end, just that last-second shot, it almost went in,” Shoemaker said, “so it would have been a huge thing if I would have missed those free throws.”

Thankfully for the Braves, Shoemaker listened to Rieckers during the timeout.

“The main thing she said in the timeout was to block out because they will foul, and they did and it was exactly what she said,” Shoemaker said.

And was she nervous going to the line?

“It feels like the beginning of the game when you’re all shaking,” she said. But she added, “I like pressure, so I knew I could do it.”

Brownstown was 10 of 11 from the line in the fourth quarter and 18 of 21 in the second half. That’s compared to the Dragons going 7 of 9 in the fourth and 12 of 17 in the half.

“That’s one of the things we’ve done well on this year,” Rieckers said of free throws. “Free throws is one area that is a goal for us that we wanted to improve, to shoot a certain percent every game, so we know that we can step up and make those, and they did it when it mattered most. When you’re in a close game like that, free throws are going to be a deciding factor as well as just your regular blocking out and doing the little things right, so that’s what we have to do.”

The start of the game favored Silver Creek. The Dragons’ pesky defense forced the Braves into seven turnovers, and Silver Creek held a 10-5 advantage after one quarter.
“There’s been two other quarters this year besides the first quarter today that we have not scored in double figures, so that’s a credit to their defense,” Rieckers said. “And we also missed some shots that we should have been making.”

The Braves then countered with solid play and forced the Dragons into six turnovers in the second quarter. Sammie Bane had back-to-back steals and layups in the first minute that kicked off a Brownstown 12-0 run. After Bane passed to Maria Allen in transition for a layup at 4:50 for a 17-10 lead, Silver Creek went on a 9-0 run. Hailey Brown responded for Brownstown with a pull-up at 1:33 to tie the score and a three-point play at 54 seconds for a 22-19 lead.

Carissa Brown drove through the Brownstown defense for an easy layup at the buzzer for a 22-21 score at halftime.

“We needed a run to start the second quarter to make sure we built our confidence, and we knew that we were still in the game, especially when they have a young team and are as well-coached as they are, they are never going to give up and they are going to keep coming at you,” Rieckers said.

Neither team trailed by more than three points the entire second half, and there were 10 lead changes and four ties. Brownstown had the 10-9 scoring edge in the third period for a 32-30 lead going into the fourth.

Brownstown had consecutive turnovers in a span of a minute within the final two minutes of the game, but the Braves only allowed the Dragons to tie the game once and didn’t let them take the lead down the stretch.

Shoemaker led all scorers with 18 points, including 12 of 13 from the line, and Bane chipped in 13 points, including 7 of 8 from the line.

Brown carried Silver Creek with 16 points and seven rebounds, while Emily Clayton scored 10 points.

“If we would have let down after the first quarter, there would have been no match at the end because we wouldn’t have been able to step up because they kept going the whole game,” Shoemaker said. “We knew what we were coming in to, we knew they were physical, we knew they were good and you can’t underestimate a team, and we just knew that it was going to be a tough game.”

During the middle two quarters, however, Austin got back in the swing of things and had a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter. But Brownstown wouldn’t be denied, as the Braves took a two-point lead late in the game when Sammie Bane sank two free throws with 15.7 seconds left on the clock.

The Braves were called for a foul with just a few ticks left on the clock in the fourth quarter. Shantel Gray missed two free throws, but Jessie Davidson collected the offensive board and scored, sending the game into overtime.

In the overtime session, the Braves scored 10 straight points and went on to collect a 75-67 victory, improving their record to 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the MSC.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the girls for the way they hung in there,” Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “I kept telling the girls that Austin is a good team and they will be somebody who will not quit. I really didn’t think we were playing our game until we got to the fourth quarter. I really thought our play in overtime was exceptional.”

With the score tied at 61 after four quarters, Sammie Bane took the tip and went in for a layup to give her team a 63-61 lead. Kaylee Bennett scored, followed by a Bane bucket and two free throws and two free throws by Katelyn Shoemaker for a 71-61 lead.

Gray drained a 3-pointer for the Eagles, but Hailey Brown scored with 30 seconds left for a 73-64 lead. Bane closed out the scoring for the Braves with a wide-open layup. Brownstown outscored Austin 14-6 in overtime on 5 of 9 shooting from the floor, while the Eagles were 2 of 8.

“We wanted to make sure we had a quick score in overtime and that was the way we drew it up, so I couldn’t ask for anything more,” Rieckers said.

The Braves’ defense showed up in the first quarter, as they limited the Eagles to 2 of 13 from the floor and forced them to turn the ball over eight times. Austin scored the first two points of the game, but Bennett’s free throw kicked off an 11-0 Brownstown run. The Braves led 11-6 after one period.

Shoemaker scored the first two points of the second quarter for a 13-6 lead, but the Eagles scored eight straight for a one-point edge. Shoemaker returned the lead to the Braves at 5:12, but the Eagles scored the next five points for a 19-15 lead and managed to take a 26-21 lead at the break.

Brown ignited the Braves in the third quarter, scoring 11 of the team’s 19 points, to keep her team in the game. Bane scored at 2:26 to make it 35-35, but the Eagles outscored the Braves 12-5 over the next two minutes to lead 47-40 after three quarters.

The Eagles then led 52-43, but the Braves slowly mounted their comeback and took a two-point lead only to lose it in the closing seconds, sending the game into overtime.

The Braves once again had balanced scoring, as Bane led all players with 21 points, Shoemaker had 19 and Brown chipped in 18. Shoemaker made it a double-double with a game-high 13 rebounds.

“One of the goals we set was to have four players in double figures, and if we do that, we will be a really hard team to stop,” Rieckers said. “Bane has stepped us this year and has done a good job of leading. I just can’t say enough about this team.

“Hailey (Brown) is somebody we thought over the summer could help us out, and in the game with Mitchell, she stepped up and had a nice game. She stepped up tonight in a big way, and our bench came in and gave us some crucial minutes. Jenna Hackman and Kristen Mellencamp each came in and did nice jobs.”

The Braves finished the game 25 of 58 from the field, while the Eagles were 25 of 64. The Braves outscored the Eagles 23-11 from the free-throw line.

Gray led the Eagles (4-3 overall, 2-2 in MSC) with 15 points and Davidson had 12.

BROWNSTOWN — After a 23-point burst in the second quarter to pull ahead 37-26 at halftime, Brownstown Central got a little careless in the second half.

In Thursday’s Mid-Southern Conference game at home with Salem, the Lady Braves went on a 10-0 run and then scored six straight late in the second quarter to push ahead of the Lions.

Then, Brownstown turned the ball over seven times in each of the final two quarters and allowed the Lions to pull within four points early in the fourth. The Braves, however, found an answer from senior leader Sammie Bane, who scored seven of her game- and season-high 24 points in the period, and also a big 3-pointer from Hailey Brown at 1:30, and Brownstown pulled out a 61-51 win.

“When somebody’s playing you zone, you’ve got to attack the basket,” Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “You can’t be content to stand around the 3-point line and just pass the ball back-and-forth because when you start to do that, you start to get lazy passes, and then they are going to step in the passing lanes and cause turnovers.”

That’s what Salem did in the second half. After Katelyn Shoemaker made five baskets down low in the first half for Brownstown, Salem went zone in the second half and forced the Braves to work the ball along the perimeter. That resulted in uncharacteristic turnovers.

“Certainly not to take anything away from Salem, but I feel like we were trying to force some bad passes that weren’t there,” Rieckers said. “If two people are there, you’re not going to be able to pass the ball there. You need to reverse the ball and move the ball quickly, especially when a team is playing you zone. You have to be able to attack the gaps and keep the ball moving.”

That’s where Bane came into play in the second half. Three of her second-half baskets were off of drives into the lane and another was on her fourth steal of the game. She also went into the lane and drew a foul.

Annie Newkirk’s fourth 3-pointer of the game at the top of the key at 6:57 of the fourth quarter made it a 48-44 game, but Bane responded with a drive. Nikia Morgan’s basket a minute later put Salem within four, but Shoemaker had an offensive putback, and then two free throws about a minute later for an eight-point Brownstown lead. The closest Salem got after that was five at 1:40, but Brownstown scored six of the final seven points of the game.

“For some odd reason in the third quarter, we decided to come out and do a lot of what we were doing in the first quarter, kind of standing around, not getting in the gaps the way we needed to, not faking and making good passes,” Rieckers said. “Our intensity just wasn’t there.”

After Bane’s free throw at 5:57 of the first quarter tied the game at 4, Salem scored seven straight points. Brownstown was within one point twice in the final 1:38, but Salem held an 18-14 lead after one period of play.

Jordyn Wroblewski scored on a baseline jumper to open the second quarter for Salem, but the Braves answered with a jumper and a 3 from Brown for a one-point game at 5:42.

Following Morgan’s score 21 seconds later, Brownstown came alive. The Braves had four straight steals, three by Bane and one by Kaylee Bennett, and they turned that into a 10-0 scoring run to take the lead with 3:41 left in the half. Brownstown held tight and went into the break with a 37-26 advantage, outscoring Salem 23-8 in the second.

“I couldn’t have asked for better play than how we came out and played in the second quarter,” Rieckers said. But she added, “You have to be consistent throughout. You can’t have one good quarter throughout the night and think that’s going to carry you for the rest of the game. You have to play hard and play well every single quarter.”

Along with Bane’s 24 points, Shoemaker added 17, Brown nine and Bennett eight. Shoemaker led all rebounders with eight, and the Braves had the 32-20 advantage in that department.

Newkirk finished with a team-high 16 points for Salem, while Kristie Taylor had 11 and Morgan 10.

Most basketball games in the Brownstown Central-Seymour rivalry are decided in the fourth quarter, and that is what happened in the Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium on Thursday night.

The Lady Braves held a 49-45 lead entering the fourth period before the Owls opened the quarter on a 9-0 run and led the rest of the way for a 63-60 win on Breast Cancer Awareness Night.

Braves coach Karla Rieckers said her team made a few mistakes in the fourth period and Seymour took advantage by outscoring her team 18-11.

“Down the stretch, we lost a little bit of our mental toughness there,” Rieckers said. “We made a couple key errors, we had a turnover and we didn’t block out at crucial points there at the end of the game, just some little things where we lost our focus just a little bit, and you can’t do that in a big game like that. You have to make a stop on every possession and not give them a second-chance opportunity. You’ve got to be one shot and done, and we had several times where we didn’t let that happen down the stretch.”

Hannah Carmichael opened the fourth-quarter scoring for the Owls with a 3-pointer from the top of the key. Seymour pounded the ball inside on its next three possessions, with Shayna Abel scoring four points and Amanda Moore two to give Seymour a 54-49 lead with 6:05 remaining.

“That little bit of a cushion helped us,” Owls coach Beth DeVinney said. “We saved our timeouts a little bit. We were gassed a little bit, but we needed them at the end of the game and we wanted to make sure we had one at the end of the game.”

Kaylee Bennett hit a 3-pointer from the left corner on Brownstown’s next possession to cut the difference to 54-52. The teams traded points over the next five minutes, and Maria Allen’s two free throws with 48 seconds remaining left the Braves trailing 60-58.

Moore, Carmichael and Abel made free throws to increase Seymour’s lead before Sammie Bane closed the scoring with a basket at the top of the lane with .07 seconds remaining.

Abel had a double-double with 18 points and 13 rebounds, both season highs.

“I just wanted to go up strong,” Abel said. “I think I did pretty well rebounding. I think I could have done better. I could have got more rebounds, but I think I did my best.”

Abel said she felt like the Owls causing turnovers and running their offense made the difference in the fourth period.

“We did four low, and the post going up strong and the guards going up strong made the difference,” she said. “It’s a very good win.”

DeVinney said, “I think for the most part (Abel) worked for her shots. I think she is very underrated. She’s a big-bodied kid and she is doing nothing but improving every day, and I don’t think people give her the credit she deserves. She’s come a long way, and I’ve never had a freshman kid (who started on the freshman team) start on varsity in 20 years, never. She’s the first and she’s deserving of it. Most of those kids don’t end up starting. They end up as role players, but she’s worked her tail off and we’re real proud of her. She kept us in the game tonight.”

Bridgette Jones scored 13 points, Carmichael and Moore had 11 each and Brianna Gillaspy 10. That was the first time Moore had been held below 22 and Rieckers said, “I think that had something to do with Sammie Bane’s defense. That is one of the things we really focused on. Last year, she seemed to get away from us and really scored a lot.

“When they do the dribble-drive offense, your player has to step over and help, then they dumped and hit the open person, so that is some of the things we’re working on, but for our third game out, I couldn’t be more proud of our effort.”

The teams traded baskets the first six minutes of the game resulting in six ties, the last at 12-12. Katelyn Shoemaker scored eight points and Hailey Brown six to lead the Braves to a 19-16 advantage after one quarter. Abel had six points for the Owls in that period.

“I thought we got off to a better start,” Rieckers said. “When you look back at our previous games, especially our first game when we only scored two points in the first quarter and then the Providence game, I think we’ve been a little bit out of sync, but I thought we made big strides tonight. I think our team grew, and we just need to continue to build on that.”

Shoemaker’s two free throws at 5:13 of the second period gave the Braves a 24-18 lead. The teams traded points over four minutes, leaving the score at 33-27, before Gillaspy made two free throws and a layup to cut the difference to 33-31. After Shoemaker added a free throw for the visitors, Moore scored from close range with 12 seconds remaining and Gillaspy had a steal and layup in the closing seconds to give the Owls a 35-34 lead at the half.

Bane scored nine points in the third period to help the Braves to a 49-45 lead.

Shoemaker topped the Braves with 15 points and Bane scored 13.

The Braves made 23 of 51 shots from the floor and 13 of 18 at the line, while the Owls were 28 of 67 from the field and 5 of 10 from the line.

“Our defense just wasn’t there tonight,” DeVinney said. “You can’t give up 60 points. You’ve got to maintain some kind of defensive intensity. Bloomington South took a lot out of us (on Tuesday). This has been a tough week for us. We played a state-ranked team and another state-ranked team and a rival. Brownstown (No. 5 in Class 2A) is going to be a very hard team in 2A to beat. They are going to go far.”

At Seymour

BROWNSTOWN — After winning their first game by 20 points, the Brownstown Central Lady Braves hit the hardwood a week later and played host to Providence.

The Braves were anxious to get back on the court and it showed early on Saturday, as they had a hard time handling the ball and had seven first-quarter turnovers. Brownstown, however, found its rhythm in the second quarter and delivered a 20-point knockout to the Pioneers, and the Braves went on to collect a 64-44 win.

“I think any time you have a week off and a holiday break, it tends to slow you down,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “We gave them Thanksgiving off, and to come back in here and play, we didn’t start too well. We just have to work harder on getting off to a faster start.”

Even though the Braves never trailed in the game, the Pioneers managed to tie the game 2-2, but Brownstown found solid contribution underneath and used an 11-0 run over the next 3:37 to make it a 13-2 game.

Jenna Hackman started the run with a three-point play. Kaylee Bennett then grabbed a defensive rebound off of a missed free throw and hit an open Sammie Bane for a layup. Bennett then made her first basket, Bane had another one and Hailey Brown scored at 1:17 to end the scoring run.

The Pioneers scored the final four points of the first quarter, but the Braves still led 13-6. The Braves shot 6 of 13 from the floor in the quarter and finished the game 26 of 58. The Pioneers shot 3 of 13 in the first quarter and were 14 of 53 for the game.

The Braves turned up the intensity on the defensive end with their press and limited the Pioneers to one made field goal in the second quarter. Brownstown’s lead reached double digits when Bennett hit a jump shot in the lane to make it 20-9. The Pioneers made a free throw to cut the lead in half, but the Braves scored the final eight points of the second quarter and led 28-10.

“We got a little more aggressive on our press, and that helps,” Rieckers said. “As we were playing along, we were a little passive. Our defense has to keep going because it feeds our offense. Sometimes when we start out, we don’t have that defensive intensity that we need for our offense to be as successful.”

The Braves increased their lead to 31-10 in the third period, but the Pioneers scored three straight points. The Braves then took the lead back to 21 when Jenna Hackman received a cross-court pass from Bennett and converted a three-point play.

Brownstown outscored Providence 15-14 in the third quarter and led 43-24 heading into the final quarter.

Rebounding was a key for the Braves in this game, and they won that battle 43-34, with Bennett leading the way with a game-high 12 boards. Kristen Mellencamp finished with eight.
“Rebounding is something we worked on because after the Mitchell game, we were disappointed in our effort,” Rieckers said. “That was something we focused on this week in practice, and I thought it was much improved. I still thought we missed a few key blockouts where they had second and third chances.”

Bane led the Braves with 13 points, while Bennett had nine and Maria Allen and Hackman each had eight. With the lead in double figures in the second half, Rieckers was able to get her other players some experience. They scored seven points off of the bench in the third quarter.

In the first quarter, the Braves were 1 of 13 from the field and trailed 11-2. However, over the final three quarters of the game, the Braves outscored the Bluejackets 63-34 and cruised to a 65-45 home win.

The Braves began the game by missing their first 12 shots from the floor. The Bluejackets were not much better from the floor as they hit 4 of 11, but still managed to lead by nine.

“It was a combination of first-game jitters and not being able to hit their shots,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said of the first quarter. “We missed a lot of shots in the first quarter, and when they don’t fall, frustration starts to set in and they get a little aggravated. When you get more frustrated, you get more tight, and the shots didn’t fall. I figured once we calmed down, we would be all right.”

At the onset of the second quarter, the Braves used an 8-0 run to cut the Bluejackets’ lead to 11-10 as Katelyn Shoemaker got it going with a free throw. Hailey Brown had a three-point play, and then hit two free throws and followed that up with a two-point basket.

Mitchell’s Alaina Hall put her team back up 13-10 with her first field goal of the game. Kaylee Bennett closed the gap to 13-12, but Hall answered the call with another bucket.

The Braves were within 17-16, but Hall rescued the Bluejackets with a 3-pointer for the 20-16 lead. Hall came off the bench and scored eight of her team-high 14 points in the second quarter. The Braves were able to tie it at 20, but the Bluejackets hung on for the 25-23 halftime lead.

The Braves took their first lead of the game at the 7-minute mark of the third quarter when Sammie Bane started to heat up. She drained a 3-pointer for the 28-27 lead. Over the final 6:22 of the quarter, the lead changed seven times and was tied twice, as the Bluejackets held onto a slim 38-37 lead after three quarters.

Mitchell’s Courtney Perkins picked up her fifth foul of the game when she fouled Bane in the act of shooting, and Bane connected on an old-fashioned three-point play to give her team the lead for good at 40-38. The Braves used a 12-0 run to blow the game open.

During that scoring streak, Bane had seven points, Shoemaker had a field goal and Brown had her second 3-pointer of the game. The Bluejackets’ Mia Burton ended their run with a free throw, but Bane started another 10-0 run to secure the big opening win.

“In the fourth quarter was the Brownstown team we like to see,” Rieckers said. “We were moving and taking care of the ball. We got people who can shoot the ball from outside and have people who can score on the inside. I was glad people got to see the real Brownstown team instead of the first-quarter Brownstown team.”

The Braves trio of Bane, Brown and Bennett shot 5 of 22 from the floor in the first half and had 10 of the team’s 23 points, but in the second half, they were 11 of 18. Bane led the way with 19 points, Brown had 18 and Bennett had eight.

“I am proud of the way they kept their composure in the second half,” Rieckers said. “I told the girls that if we calm down in the fourth quarter, then things would go our way, and I am glad they listened as they were able to come out and put the ball in the basket.”

The Braves finished the game 20 of 59 from the floor, while the Bluejackets were 16 of 54. The Bluejackets won the rebounding battle 39-37, as Allison Trevithick had eight. Bane and Bennett each led Brownstown with five.

A big key for the Braves’ success down the stretch was the fact that they outscored the Bluejackets 23-7 on points off of turnovers.