HUNTINGBURG — Clunk went one free throw, then a second. Clunk went a third, then a fourth and a fifth.

And suddenly, instead of enjoying victory, Eastern Greene had to hold its collective breath until Brownstown Central’s Spencer Allman missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer before celebrating a 52-50 overtime victory in the Class 2A Southridge Regional semifinals Saturday. The T-Birds will play undefeated Forest Park, 51-48 winner over Covenant Christian, in Saturday night's final.

“We missed some free throws, no question, but that’s a 22-2 team we beat,” Thunderbirds coach Andy Igel said. “Am I disappointed that we didn’t hit those free throws? No. We’ll hit them. I’m not worried. I had the right guys in there shooting, it just didn’t go in.”

Eastern wound up shooting better from the field at 48.7 percent (19-of-39) than the free-throw line — 47.6 percent (10-of-21). That combined with a defensive performance that held No. 8 Brownstown to 37.8 percent (17-of-45) from the field proved to be enough.

Spearheading the defensive performance was senior Zack Johnson, who held Allman to just four points in the fourth quarter and overtime after the Braves’ leading scorer had scored 14 in the second and third quarters. It was an assignment the senior relished.

“I just gave him a step, tried to make him shoot it or drive it,” said Johnson, who added 11 points off the bench, playing extra minutes after starter Miles Hutchison suffered a knee injury. “I contested his shot and luckily he wasn’t hitting anything today.

“(Coach) took me off of him there near the end of the third quarter because he thought I was tired. I was like, ‘No, coach, keep me on him.’ He had just scored, and I was like, ‘He ain’t going to score no more.’ So I stepped up and tried to shut him down as well as I could.”

Eastern, ranked No. 10, never led by more than three points in the game, while Brownstown’s biggest advantage came at 34-27 in the third quarter. The T-Birds trimmed the deficit to one by the end of the quarter and took their first lead since early in the second quarter on Ray Darnell’s layup to start the fourth.

The lead seesawed back and forth, but Eastern still held a 44-43 lead when Johnson was fouled with 1:29 left in regulation. He missed the front end of the 1-and-1, and Brownstown’s Jalen Snodgrass hit two free throws for the lead at the other end. Johnson was fouled again with 55 seconds left, hitting the first and missing the second, but Eastern survived two Brownstown shots for the win in the closing seconds.

The story was much the same in overtime. When J.T. Yoho grabbed a rebound and went coast-to-coast for a layup and intentional foul with 23.2 seconds left, victory seemed assured.

But Yoho missed both free throws, and Tyler Igel missed a pair on the ensuing foul. Allman scored a driving layup with 8.4 seconds left, and Brody Martin headed to the line at :07.5, missing the first and making the second for a 52-50 lead.

Allman got off one final shot from the right corner — contested by Johnson — and when it hit off the front of the rim, Eastern had earned the right to play No. 1 Forest Park (24-0) for its first regional title since 2001.

“We didn’t want it to be a grinder like it was,” Igel said. “But at this point, it’s about survival. You’ve got to find a way to survive. Now we’re in a championship game where anything can happen.”

BROWNSTOWN 50

3P AFG FT R PF Pts

Eggersman, f 1- 2 5-10 2- 3 6 2 13

Olson, c 0- 0 0- 4 0- 0 1 1 0

Snodgrass, g 2- 3 3-10 2- 2 4 4 10

McCory, g 0- 2 0- 4 1- 3 5 1 1

Allman, g 1- 8 6-14 5- 6 3 3 18

DeHart 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 2 0 0

Toppe 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0 1 0

Klinge 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0 1 0

Payton 0- 0 3- 3 2- 2 5 2 8

Totals 4-15 17-45 12-16 27 15 50

Shooting .267 .378 .750

EASTERN GREENE 52

3P AFG FT R PF Pts

Hutchison, f 0- 0 1- 1 0- 0 0 1 2

Darnell, c 0- 0 6-13 1- 2 6 3 13

Igel, g 0- 1 1- 4 0- 2 1 0 2

Russell, g 2- 3 2- 5 2- 2 4 4 8

Yoho, g 2- 2 5-10 1- 4 8 3 13

Martin 0- 0 0- 1 2- 4 1 0 2

Cobine 0- 0 0- 0 0- 0 0 1 0

Johnson 0- 0 4- 5 3- 5 4 1 11

Ingram 0- 0 0- 0 1- 2 0 4 1

Totals 4- 6 19-39 10-21 26 17 52

Shooting .667 .487 .476

Brownstown Central (22-3) 10 16 10 9 5 — 50

Eastern Greene (23-2) 11 9 15 10 7 — 52

PEKIN — Clarksville made Brownstown Central earn its third straight Class 2A Sectional 47 title.

On Monday night at Pekin, Brownstown led by as many as 13 points in the first half before settling for a 36-25 advantage at halftime.

The Braves’ largest lead in the third quarter was 17, and it reached that mark again early in the fourth.

But the Generals didn’t give up. A long 3-pointer by freshman Calvin McEwen in front of his team’s bench pulled Clarksville within 68-64 with 18 seconds remaining. After Brett McCory made one of two free throws with 12.4 seconds to go, Billy Edelen’s 3-point shot hit nothing but air, and Spencer Allman grabbed the rebound and made one of two at the line for a 70-64 lead.

Clarksville’s Cory Brown drove in for a layup as the buzzer sounded, and Brownstown won 70-66.

“We were up 17 early in the fourth, and they fought back and cut it to four. Our season could have been over there,” Allman said. “I guess it’s good to know that we can win in close-game situations like that, but I’d rather my senior year not end like that.”

Brownstown shot a sharp 23 of 38 from the field, but the Braves let the Generals drive in for too many shots and they missed eight free throws out of 18 attempts in the fourth quarter that could have been costly. They, however, managed to make the free throws at the right moments.

“Our offense was going pretty well. We just couldn’t get stops on defense, so that kept them in the game,” Allman said. “But finally, we started making some big free throws, and that’s what got us a little bit of separation there at the end.”

The teams battled through two ties and two lead changes in the first quarter before Jalen Snodgrass found a cutting Allman for a layup and a 16-13 score in the closing seconds.

Near the midway point of the second quarter, Brownstown had outscored Clarksville 13-6, forcing Clarksville coach Jason Connell to call a timeout with his team down 29-19 after Snodgrass’ second trey of the quarter.

The Braves’ fourth 3 of the second, by Allman at 2:40, gave them a 34-21 lead, their largest of the half.

The Generals then had a pair of free throws by Edelen and a basket by Aidan McEwen before Snodgrass drove to the basket with two seconds remaining in the half, setting the score at 36-25.

“That’s a credit to Clarksville,” Braves coach Dave Benter said of his team shooting 13 of 20 from the field but only being up by 11 points at halftime. “At times, we got broken down off the dribble, and they hit a couple tough shots.”

Connell didn’t take over as head coach until the middle of January, but he went 6-6. Up to that point, the Generals were 4-6. Brownstown defeated Clarksville 74-60 on Feb. 4.

“We knew that this was going to be a really difficult game,” Benter said. “I watched four or five films in the last couple days on them, and we knew that this was a much different team than what we played (a month) ago. That’s a credit to their coaching staff…and kids buying into the new coach.”

The Braves built their lead up to 17 in the third quarter on Trey DeHart’s wide-open layup at the 4:23 mark. But the Braves only outscored the Generals 14-12 in the period and led 50-37 going into the fourth.

Brownstown’s lead was 17 again after two straight baskets by Snodgrass early in the fourth quarter, causing Connell to burn a timeout.

He apparently said something in the timeout to spark his team.

Edelen knocked down a 3-pointer and converted a three-point play off of an offensive rebound, putting his team within 54-43 with 5:45 to go.

“They started getting wide-eyed, and everything they were throwing up was going in,” Benter said of the Generals in the fourth quarter. “I think our guys missed a couple free throws and started questioning themselves, and that’s uncharacteristic. Our team was shooting 75 percent going into the game from the line.”

Brownstown had a double-digit lead until Aidan McEwen’s drive off of two missed Brownstown free throws made it a 62-54 game with 2:15 on the clock.

Edelen knocked down a big 3 with 1:13 to go for a 63-57 score, and then Snodgrass made a pair at the line and Brown made a layup with 51 seconds remaining in the game. After McCory made a free throw, Edelen had two of his own at 28 seconds after grabbing an offensive rebound and getting fouled, making it 66-61.

Allman made two free throws to push the lead back to seven, and the Braves managed to hold on for the win.

“Our guys, as they’ve done most of the year besides the Charlestown game, made enough plays and stepped up,” Benter said. “We had some different guys make big plays, get a couple rebounds and big free throws.”

Allman led the Braves with 19 points and six rebounds, while Snodgrass scored 14 points and McCory and Evan Eggersman had 12 apiece.

Clarksville also had four players in double figures. Edelen took game honors with 21 points, Brown and Aidan McEwen each finished with 16 and Calvin McEwen came off the bench and scored 11, with nine of those points coming from 3-point land.

Benter considered his third straight sectional title “a huge deal.” It was his fifth crown overall.

“We lost an awful lot from last year’s team, and I think a lot of people and some players questioned how we were going to replace some of those guys,” Benter said. “I remember talking right after the season was over with our team last year and saying, ‘Look, if you guys believe and we come together and work hard, we’ve got the people in place here to come back and have a really good basketball team.’ But I never imagined we’d be 22-2.”

Benter congratulated Allman after the game for becoming the first Brownstown player to start on three straight sectional championship teams.

“That means quite a bit,” Allman said. “I just want to thank everybody that’s supported me this week. I’ve had a pretty tough week losing my grandpa on Friday. Friday, I was playing tough, and tonight, I came out and did it for him.”

PEKIN — Discipline and patience.

Those two things were important for the eighth-ranked Brownstown Central Braves in Friday’s Class 2A Sectional 47 semifinal game at Eastern (Pekin) while facing 12th-ranked Providence.

That’s because the Pioneers tend to slow the ball down on hot-shooting teams.

To the relief of coach Dave Benter, the Braves displayed both things in the game, and that led to a 43-40 victory, advancing them to Monday’s championship game against Clarksville (10-11), which downed a solid West Washington (16-6) squad 43-39 in Friday’s first semifinal matchup.

The championship game was moved to Monday because the Brownstown girls team is taking on Fort Wayne Bishop Luers in today’s 2A state finals in Fort Wayne.

“When you play a good, deliberate team, they are able to dictate tempo,” Benter said. “Slow-down teams can usually dictate tempo better than good fast-paced teams. The last thing I told them before we left the locker room (before the game started) was this game’s probably going to be in the high 30s or low 40s. You’ve got to maximize when you get an opportunity, and our guys did that.”

That was especially true in the second half.

After the Braves held a 17-15 edge at halftime, the teams came out and had a 3-point shootout, with Providence’s A.J. Schmidt making a pair and Brownstown’s Brett McCory and Jake Olson each knocking down long-range shots.

Spencer Allman then made drives to the basket, one time not making the shot but drawing the foul and connecting on both shots, and the other time finding a wide-open drive from the right side for a 28-23 lead. Tanner Payton made it a seven-point Brownstown lead at 1:19 with a strong move to the bucket, making the basket and drawing the foul.

He, however, didn’t convert the three-point play, and 12 seconds later, Providence’s Colin Daly had a putback for a 30-25 score, and that held until the fourth quarter started.

Providence was within two points just 15 seconds into the fourth, and at 3:45 the Pioneers were within three. Brownstown, though, managed to hold onto the lead and built a six-point advantage at 1:43 on two big free throws by Allman. The Braves held on down the stretch by making free throws. They went 8 for 12 from the line in the fourth quarter.

“Our decision-making was fantastic throughout the whole night,” Benter said. The Braves only had five turnovers, while the Pioneers had six. “It is unbelievable how smart our guys played with the basketball. I thought in the fourth quarter, we kind of got away from trying to score a little bit too much. Once they started chasing us, our guys spaced out and we moved the ball well, ball-faked well and made enough free throws to win it.”

While the Braves never lost the lead after holding the advantage at halftime, the beginning of the game was a different story.

There were three ties and four lead changes in the first quarter alone. Bryce Very’s 3-pointer from the top of the key at 1:22 gave Providence a 10-7 lead, but Allman answered it with a three-point play. The 10-all score held to the end of the quarter.

The Braves then started the second quarter with five straight points behind Payton’s three-point play at 6:52 and Allman’s free throws about 2 minutes later. The Pioneers then scored five straight, and it was 17-15 at halftime, favoring Brownstown.

After only scoring five points in Wednesday’s first-round sectional game against Paoli, Allman led all scorers with 19 points on Friday night. McCory added seven points, while Payton and Evan Eggersman had six apiece.

Schmidt was the only Pioneer in double figures, scoring 16 points, including going 3 of 3 from 3-point land.

“Basically all the guys that played contributed in some way,” Benter said. “Tanner came off the bench and played fantastic, Spencer and Evan and Jalen (Snodgrass) had the ball in their hands a lot and played really well. And Brett, he had the task of guarding A.J. most of the game, and then he hit two huge 3s and made a big free throw down the stretch. He kept his confidence, he kept his head in the game and had a huge second half for us.”

On Feb. 4, Brownstown (21-2) defeated Clarksville 74-60 in a Mid-Southern Conference game. But Benter realizes they are now a different team.

Allman tops 1,000 career points on Senior Night

BROWNSTOWN — Entering Friday’s Senior Night game with Orleans, Spencer Allman knew he was close to reaching a milestone.

The Brownstown Central senior only needed 11 points to become the school’s 13th boys basketball player to reach 1,000 career points.

After missing his two shot attempts and making two free throws in the first quarter, Allman scored his team’s first 12 points of the second, with his 3-pointer off of an assist by Jalen Snodgrass at 3:51 sending him over 1,000. It also gave his team a 31-17 lead, and the Braves went on to win 75-56.

“I just wanted to come out and be patient about it. I didn’t want to do anything different or force any shots,” said Allman, who finished with a game-high 25 points and had six rebounds.
Allman admitted he was nervous coming into the game. He was whistled for his second foul with 4:04 remaining in the first quarter, sending him to the bench.

But in the second quarter, he scored 12 of his team’s 18 points, and the Braves led 39-23 at halftime.

“In the second quarter, I got open for a layup and hit a couple free throws, and then hit a couple of quick (shots) and I knew I was close,” Allman said. “Jalen Snodgrass told me before the game that he wanted to be the one to give me an assist because he’d always remember it, so we were coming up the floor in transition and they tried to get in their zone and he kicked it out and I was pretty deep on it. I went ahead and let it fly because he told me to do it.”

Reaching 1,000 points is something Allman credits to the teammates he has had, and also his hard work and dedication.

“Last year, I missed eight games with mono and I didn’t play very much coming back after those games,” he said. “I could have (reached 1,000 points) earlier this season, but I’m glad it happened on Senior Night because we’ve been getting a lot of good wins lately. Coming into my last game here at the Pit in Brownstown, I’ve had great fan support and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”

Another Brownstown senior, Evan Eggersman, came out of the gate and scored 10 points in the first quarter, and his four straight free throws made it a 15-9 game at 2:45. But with 47 seconds to go, Lucas McCullough’s jumper pulled Orleans within 18-16. Snodgrass then assisted Brett McCory on a big 3 in the closing seconds for a five-point advantage.

“It kind of started with Brett’s 3 he hit at the end of the quarter,” Braves coach Dave Benter said. “The guys did a nice job executing that last-second play and Brett hit a big shot. From there on out, I thought we really dug in defensively and got better defensively. I thought offensively, we played really, really well.”

Allman took control in the second quarter, while Orleans started out with two turnovers and missed its first six shots. The Bulldogs didn’t make a field goal until Trey Bradley’s score at 3:20. The teams then traded baskets a few times, and with 20 seconds left in the half, Orleans’ 6-foot-7 junior, Bryan Moldrem, had a two-handed dunk, sending the fans into a frenzy.

Eggersman hushed the crowd on the Braves’ next possession with a strong drive to the basket, giving his team a 16-point advantage at halftime.

“I thought after they got that dunk late in the second quarter, we made a really big basket at the end of the second quarter to kind of get our momentum back going into the half,” Benter said.

That momentum certainly carried into the second half, as the Braves went on a 10-2 run to open the third period, forcing Orleans into a timeout with the score favoring the Braves 49-25. The Bulldogs scored four straight points out of the timeout, but later, eight straight points by the Braves, capped off by Skylar Thompson’s basket at 2:42, set the score at 59-32.

Brownstown led by as many as 28 points twice, once in the third quarter and once in the fourth, and the Braves didn’t let the Bulldogs get any closer than 19. McCullough led Orleans with 19 points, while Bradley finished with 18.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that can score, and when we move the basketball well and are making shots, that puts a lot of pressure on the other team,” Benter said. “Spencer and Evan did that tonight. They were really aggressive, really attacking, and they put so much pressure on them. And Jalen, I thought, distributed the basketball exceptionally well.”

Allman shot 7 of 11 from the field, including five 3s, and made all six of his free throws, while Eggersman went 7 of 14 from the floor and 8 of 8 from the line for a season-high 22 points. He also had six rebounds. The team’s third senior, Jake Olson, finished with two points.

“They mean a lot to us,” Benter said of the seniors. “They can help us in a lot of different ways. They are versatile-type players, and basketball is important to them. That’s the first thing about good teams is basketball is important to them.”

Benter also congratulated Allman on his accomplishment.

“His sophomore year, he was strictly a shooter, and I challenged him to get better in other areas of the game,” Benter said. “I don’t think he had the season last year that he hoped he would have, so he really dedicated himself and spent a lot of time getting ready for this season, and it’s really shown. He’s really stepped up and done a lot of different things to help us besides score.”

The Braves ended the regular season with a 19-2 record, and now that Allman has the 1,000-point milestone behind him, he can turn his attention to helping lead his team through the postseason.

NASHVILLE — The Brownstown Central Braves walked away from Monday’s game at Brown County with their luckiest win of the year.

Through a majority of the first three quarters, the Braves seemed off of their game. The lead shuffled between the teams throughout the first quarter until Brown County took an 11-7 lead with 11 seconds remaining. The Braves briefly led 36 seconds into the second quarter, but didn’t lead again until 49 seconds remained in the game.

Shots just weren’t falling, as they were 8 of 26 from the field at halftime. The Eagles were just two field goals better, but they came out in the third quarter and outscored the visitors 21-14 behind 8-of-13 shooting.

The Braves were within three points five times and one point twice in the fourth quarter. Trey DeHart’s free throws at 5:41 pulled Brownstown within 47-46, but Brown County then scored five straight points.

Later, between 1:18 and 1:07, Evan Eggersman stepped to the line and made four free throws. To earn his second trip to the line, Eggersman came up with a steal and was fouled on a drive to the basket. His free throws made it a 56-55 game.

Brownstown applied pressure and caused Brown County to turn the ball over for the sixth time in the quarter. On an inbounds play under the basket, Spencer Allman made a tough shot and was fouled. His three-point play with 49 seconds to go gave the Braves a 58-56 lead.

On the Eagles’ ensuing possession, Jordan Rose missed a 3-pointer, but it was rebounded by teammate Caleb Wedan, and he passed to Rose for another 3-point attempt. That shot was off, too, and Jalen Snodgrass chased down the rebound and was immediately fouled, but he missed both at the line.

Allman, however, was there for a big offensive rebound and was fouled by Konnor Graber with :00.6 on the clock. Graber and two of his teammates got a little fired up, enough to force the referees to call a technical on each of them. Allman then went 5 of 8 from the line to seal the 64-56 win.

“The better team didn’t win tonight, that’s for sure,” Braves coach Dave Benter said. “Credit to our guys, we made plays at the very end that we had to, but the better team did not win. We are extremely fortunate to get out of here with a win, and the scary thing is will our guys finally learn from this?”

Hopefully so because the Braves have one game remaining in the regular season and sectional play begins next week.

“Our guys have got to learn that you can’t come out and get outhustled and outplayed throughout the game,” Benter said. “We’re one and done from next week on, so our guys have got to learn that you’ve got to show up every night, and we sure didn’t show up tonight.”

After Brown County scored the first basket of the game, Brownstown had four points from Allman, two from Snodgrass and one from Eggersman for a 7-2 lead with 3:30 left in the first quarter. The Eagles then evened the score on five points from Quincy Robinson, and they took the lead on Wedan’s layup in transition.

Graber’s steal and layup with 11 seconds on the clock preceded a last-second jumper from Allman, and Brown County led 11-9 after one quarter.

DeHart’s assist to Allman for a 3 at 7:24 of the second quarter gave Brownstown a 12-11 lead, but Rose answered at the other end. The game was tied at 14 and 16, but from 4:25 on, the Braves were forced to play catch-up. The Eagles had a 24-23 edge at the break.

Despite Brownstown’s 6-of-9 shooting display in the third quarter, Brown County led by eight points three times and seven points three times. A couple of 3s by Snodgrass boosted the Braves, but they trailed 45-37 entering the final quarter.

The Eagles struggled from the floor in the fourth (0 of 6), but they went 11 of 12 from the free-throw line and led by five on free throws by Rose at 2:20 and 1:25.

But Eggersman’s steal and trips to the line and Allman’s three-point play and free throws at the end were enough to give Brownstown the win. The Braves outscored the Eagles 27-11 in the fourth.

“We completely got outplayed for probably 29 minutes, and we finally were able to turn them over a little bit in the last three minutes,” Benter said. “To our credit, Spencer and Evan made some big free throws, some big baskets, and a couple of our other guys got deflections and steals.”

Pressure paid off, he said.

“We tried basically throwing the whole kitchen sink at them, and we tried one more thing at the very end,” Benter said. “I don’t know if it was just the accumulation of our press throughout the game or just we finally found something that worked, but our guys, I thought, picked it up a little bit and started realizing their backs were against the wall and started playing like it.
“You’ve got to play with that kind of chip on your shoulder from the tip, and our guys sure didn’t do that tonight and their guys did. We had a really hard time guarding a couple of their players.”

Allman finished with 32 points, and that was his second straight game and third time this season above the 30-point mark. Snodgrass was the only other Brave in double figures, scoring 12.

“Spencer really, I thought, put us on his back tonight,” Benter said. “He made some really big plays and really played well throughout the game. When we were having trouble scoring, he stepped up and made some plays for us.”

Brown County (5-13) had three in double figures. Rose led the way with 20, while Wedan had 16 and Robinson 14.

BROWNSTOWN — The Brownstown Central Braves knew they had to get off to a good start in their game at home with Floyd Central on Tuesday night, and senior forward Spencer Allman was the catalyst.

Allman scored 10 of the Braves’ first 12 points of the game, and they were off and running from the opening tip-off and never looked back in claiming a 73-52 victory.

After getting the tip, Allman drove to the basket for a layup. Brett McCory followed him with a 12-foot jumper, and Allman drained a 3-pointer for a 7-0 lead. After the Highlanders scored, Allman received a pass from Jalen Snodgrass for a 9-2 lead, and then hit a long 3-pointer.

The Braves held a 22-12 lead after the first quarter, and Allman scored 13 of his game-high 25 points in the first quarter.

“I thought all of our starters were pretty focused,” Braves coach Dave Benter said. “We moved the basketball so well in the first quarter, and anytime you make shots, it makes you look better. A lot of that was we were getting stops on the defensive end and passing the ball so well on offense.”

The Braves then opened up a 13-point lead in the second quarter, but the Highlanders began to make some noise, outscoring the Braves 13-10 in the quarter and closing the gap to 32-25 at the break.

“I thought in the second quarter, we lost our edge and we kind of slipped up mentally and gave them a couple of backdoors,” Benter said. “We gave them a couple of 3s and got them back in the game, but I think in the second half, we re-established ourselves.”

The Highlanders were riding the back of Nick Veroff in the first half, as he scored 10 of the team’s 25 points by the break. But in the second half, the Braves’ defense stepped up, as he only attempted two shots and didn’t score.

“Our guys adjusted in defending him,” Benter said. “We were helping off of him in the first half and he made us pay. I thought we were not mentally sharp in the second quarter and they battled us. They’ve got a couple of big guys inside that battled us, and their guards are feisty and play hard. Our guys were a little nonchalant a couple of times, and we came out in the second half and defended each possession better.”

The third quarter was much like the first quarter for the Braves, as they scored the first six points and led 38-25. After Floyd Central scored, Brownstown increased its lead to 15 and eventually led 54-32 when Snodgrass hit a basket.

The Braves shot 9 of 12 from the field in the third quarter and finished the game 25 of 46. The Highlanders were 2 of 9 in the quarter and finished 17 of 49.

“I thought the first, third and fourth quarters, our defense was good,” Benter said. “The second quarter, I thought a couple of times that some of the guys took some possessions off, and we talked about that at halftime and we were better in the second half.”

Brownstown’s largest lead was 26 points before Floyd Central went on a 7-0 run late in the game.

The Braves finished with four players in double figures. Along with Allman’s 25, Skylar Thompson had 13, McCory 12 and Snodgrass 10. The rebounding battle was even at 27, and McCory and Allman each had five.

Veroff was the only Highlander in double figures, while two other players scored seven points.

BROWNSTOWN — A share of the Mid-Southern Conference was on the line at Brownstown on Friday night when Eastern (Pekin) paid a visit.

Brownstown held a one-game lead on Eastern in the conference, and a win by Eastern would result in a two-way tie for second.

However, a fast start in the first quarter by the Braves prevented that from happening, as they outscored the Musketeers 21-5 and rolled to a 91-71 win on homecoming.

The Braves finished with an 8-1 record in the MSC to tie with Charlestown and Corydon Central, while the Musketeers finished 6-3.

“Once we got beat by Charlestown, we knew we needed some help, and once we got that, our guys realized that they were forced to get a second chance and they didn’t want to let that slip away,” Braves coach Dave Benter said. “That’s a big accomplishment, and we lost a lot from last year’s team. For these guys to come out and have the conference season we had is a big accomplishment.”

The Braves scored the first five points of the game, as Jake Olson made a layup and Spencer Allman drained a 3-pointer 40 seconds into the game. Allman hit two free throws for a 7-2 lead, but Eastern made it 7-4.

Evan Eggersman then scored the next six points for the Braves for a 13-4 lead. Todd Albertson hit one free throw, but Jalen Snodgrass had a jump shot from 12 feet out, while Allman and Brett McCory hit back-to-back 3s for a 16-point lead.

Allman was feeling it on Friday night, as he scored a game-high 33 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the floor and 14 of 15 from the free-throw line.

“Coming in, we knew (Eastern) would be a physical team and we knew we still had to play well tonight to secure the conference tie,” Allman said. “We know for sure we have a piece of it and that’s what we wanted. That is two years in a row now, but last year we won it outright, and my sophomore year we kind of got in a slump late in the season and placed second. It’s a total team effort, and they deserve the credit as well. If I didn’t have all of my teammates, I couldn’t score points.”

Brownstown forced Eastern into six first-quarter turnovers and 2 of 10 from the floor, while the Braves were 7 of 11 from the floor in the quarter and finished the game 26 of 46. The Musketeers were 26 of 59 from the field.

In the second quarter, offenses from both teams began to heat up, especially the Musketeers’ Trey Albertson, who scored the team’s first 10 points. Eggersman had an assist from Allman at 5:20 to make it 31-18 and Snodgrass converted a three-point play for a 34-18 lead, and the Braves went into the locker room with a 48-32 lead.

“We had a lot of trouble with their quickness and they had trouble guarding us as both teams had a hard time guarding each other,” Benter said. “We were fortunate we got off to a good start in the first quarter because the last three quarters we did not guard them. We were also fortunate on offense we had some other guys step up.
“It seemed like after the first quarter, there were baskets being scored on every possession by both teams. That’s frustrating as a coach, but we were fortunate to get enough stops."

The Braves continued to lead by double figures throughout the third quarter, building it up to 18 points before settling for a 63-52 lead with one quarter left.

In the fourth quarter, the Braves led 72-58, but the Musketeers got the score under double digits with a 5-0 run. Snodgrass then had two free throws and Allman had a 3-pointer to go up by 14, and Eastern never got any closer.

“They had to have had four or five and-ones in the first half,” Benter said. “The big thing that I was disappointed in was our transition defense. It was not necessarily one guy stopping the ball, but five guys not getting back and getting set defensively. They are capable of putting a lot of points on the board.
“That was the first key I put on the board in the locker room, that transition is going to be a big key, and the first quarter, I thought we did OK, but from there, it went downhill. We were fortunate we made a run late after they got within nine points instead of them chipping away.”

Free throws were crucial, as the Braves hit 14 of 16 in the fourth quarter and finished the game 31 of 36. The Musketeers were 16 of 23 from the line. Also, a total of 53 fouls were called and the Musketeers had four players foul out in the fourth quarter.

The Braves won the battle of the boards 30-27, with Snodgrass pulling down eight. He had a good night all the way round, scoring 21 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and 9 of 10 from the line, dishing out nine assists, blocking three shots and stealing the ball twice. Eggersman added 17 points.

Keaton Shofner led Eastern with 19 points, while Trey Albertson had 18 and Todd Albertson added 15.

CROTHERSVILLE — Crothersville and Brownstown Central kept each other in check with their defense in the first half of Thursday’s Jackson County matchup.

Shots the teams normally make just weren’t falling, as they combined for 15 of 50 from the field, and they went into the locker room at halftime with a combined 18 turnovers and an 18-all score.

In the third quarter, though, Brownstown scored the first eight points, and later scored seven straight to go up by double figures. Crothersville didn’t give in, outscoring the visitors 19-16 in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough to pull out a win on Senior Night, and Brownstown clinched a 53-44 victory.

Brownstown senior Spencer Allman ignited the Braves in the third quarter by nailing back-to-back 3-pointers within the first minute of play, and that forced Crothersville coach Clint Waskom to call a timeout.

Allman later scored on a second-chance opportunity and hit another 3 in the third quarter, and he made four free throws in the fourth quarter, and he finished with a game-high 19 points and 11 rebounds.

“Our offense was brutal in the first half,” Allman said. “We settled for a lot of outside shots, and they weren’t really falling. I bet we only took two or three shots on the inside…We were 1 for 13 (from 3-point land), and you’re not going to win very many games going 1 for 13 from behind the line.”

So in the second half, the Braves made adjustments.

“We finally came out and penetrated the middle and we kicked it out, and that got us some open shots and we finally started making them,” Allman said. “That made (Crothersville’s) defense have to come out on the floor and guard us a little bit.”

The teams traded points in the first quarter and ended up deadlocked at 6-all. Scott Schuerman’s score at 1:45 gave the Tigers a 6-2 lead, but the Braves’ Brett McCory tipped in a teammate’s miss and Allman hit a jumper in transition at the buzzer.

Following a couple of lead changes and ties, Joe Sawyer’s steal and layup at 4:48 gave Crothersville a 16-14 advantage. After Brownstown’s fourth turnover of the quarter, Ryan Gabbard scored on a turnaround over two Brave defenders for a four-point Tiger lead.

Trey DeHart then dished the ball to McCory on an inbounds play and McCory returned the ball to DeHart for a layup, and Allman then hit two free throws at 1:06 for an 18-all score. That held until halftime.

“The way we played in the first half, we were really fortunate we weren’t down 10 to 15 because (the Tigers) missed a lot of layups that they normally make,” Braves coach Dave Benter said. “Our guys I just didn’t think offensively played very smart, and that led to a lot of easy shots for them. We took quick, long 3s at times, and that’s fine if they are going in, but once you start missing them, you need to attack the basket.”

Waskom, who played for and coached under Benter at Brownstown, said defense was the name of the game in the first half.

“I think that’s a compliment for how hard each team was making it to score on each other,” he said. “Neither team could get anything going because of the defense that was being played, and that’s a compliment to Coach Benter and the team that he has, and it’s also a compliment to my guys and how they came out ready to play.”

After an ugly offensive display in the first 16 minutes of the game, the Braves turned it around and shot 8 of 12 from the floor in the third quarter. The first double-digit lead of the game came on Allman’s third trey of the third, setting the score at 37-25 with 49 seconds to go until the fourth quarter.

Getting into the “teeth” of the Tigers’ zone, Benter said, was important in the second half.

“Our guys didn’t figure out quickly enough (in the first half) that you need to attack that kind of zone and look to attack the middle,” he said. “Finally, we did at times in the second half. We got easy baskets, and then (the Tigers) backed off their pressure a little bit.”

The Braves’ largest lead of the game was on Evan Eggersman’s layup off of a Tiger turnover, making it a 49-36 game at 2:31.

Crothersville, though, came to life on two free throws by Zach Elliott at 2:17 and a steal by Sawyer and layup by Schuerman with 1:22 to go. Brownstown then missed a couple of one-and-ones, giving Crothersville opportunities down the stretch.

Gabbard had a putback at 57 seconds for a seven-point game, but his team had consecutive turnovers in the final 50 seconds of the game. Eggersman and Allman each made two free throws to help the Braves to victory.

Eggersman was the only other Brave scoring in double figures, recording 14 points, while McCory rounded out with a solid seven points and nine rebounds.

For Crothersville, Gabbard led the way with 14 points and nine boards and Schuerman had 11 points.

“They play extremely hard,” Benter said of the Tigers, “and we knew it was Senior Night, an emotional night for them, and they were going to come out and give us their best. We made a run early in the second half, but they kept competing and kept coming at us and kept playing hard.”

Waskom said Allman “flat-out got it going” for Brownstown, and the Tigers missed a couple of defensive assignments, leaving the Braves’ sharpshooter open.

“My guys could have very easily laid down (after Allman hit back-to-back 3s in the third quarter), but I’ve got to give it to them, they kept battling and they played their hearts out, every single one of them,” Waskom said. “But the difference was that Brownstown just made a few more plays and a few more shots than what we did.”

Waskom continues to be proud of the way his team battles night in and night out.

“I know we haven’t won some games that we would have liked to, but they’ve played their hearts out the whole way through, and that’s what breaks my heart to see this group of seniors go,” he said, “because they are willing to lay it out there on the line for me, and it’s going to be tough losing them.”

PAOLI — The Brownstown Central boys basketball team put up some impressive numbers in Saturday’s game at Paoli.

Aside from scoring a season-high 94 points, the Braves scored 22 or more points in three quarters, shot 34 of 62 from the floor and 12 of 15 from the free-throw line, had a 37-23 rebounding advantage and turned the ball over only seven times.

That was just too much for the young Rams to overcome. They managed to make only nine of their 34 field-goal attempts and 15 of their 24 free throws, while turning the ball over 22 times. Plus, they only scored 10 points in the second half, including two in the fourth, compared to Brownstown’s 46.

The Braves recorded win No. 13, walloping the Rams 94-33.

“It’s an unbelievable percentage,” Braves coach Dave Benter said of his team’s shooting. Brownstown shot near or above 60 percent in three of four quarters. “I haven’t had a team shoot the basketball that well it seems like for a long time, and that was good to see, but the good thing was I thought our effort and energy were consistent, and we were really good on the defensive end also.”

Looking at the statistics, Brownstown’s 21 fouls stand out. The Braves had eight fouls in the first quarter and finished the first half with 13, and then they had the Rams in the bonus with 1:33 left in the third quarter. But it’s hard to focus on that when all of their other numbers were good.

“Some of those were just effort fouls and you’re going to get those, but there were probably three or four that probably weren’t very smart or we didn’t rotate in time,” Benter said. “I don’t mind effort fouls from being aggressive defensively and being physical, and sometimes we’re going to get more than our opponents. I can live with that if our guys don’t let it affect them and they keep playing hard and keep doing the right things.”

Despite having three players with two fouls in the first quarter, Brownstown led 22-12 after eight minutes of play. Paoli was 4 of 6 from the foul line in the period, but Brownstown was helped by Brett McCory making a layup on a steal and connecting on all four of his 3-pointers in the quarter. By 3:12, he had 14 of his team’s 17 points.

After Brownstown scored the first five points of the second quarter, Tanner Wroblewski scored to pull Paoli to within 27-14. The teams then traded points and Brownstown had a few brief runs. The Rams’ downfall in the second quarter, though, was eight turnovers, and they trailed 48-23 at halftime.

“Our starters, a couple of them missed a couple shots early, but they did not get frustrated. They kept playing hard, they kept playing the right way and good things happened,” Benter said. “Paoli has a lot of young guys and they play hard, and if we don’t come out and play the way we need to, then we can let teams like that hang around.”

The Rams didn’t even come close to hanging around. McCory’s sixth 3-pointer of the game just 27 seconds into the second half kicked off a 16-2 run for Brownstown. Spencer Allman assisted Tanner Payton on a 3 at 3:47 for a 64-25 Brownstown lead, and then Paoli’s Breck Eubank made a free throw at 3:43 to end his team’s drought.

The Rams only made two of their 11 field-goal attempts and turned the ball over six times in the third quarter, falling behind 75-31 heading into the fourth quarter. Allman nailed three 3s and a 2-pointer and Eggersman had eight points to lead the Braves in the third.

Brownstown continued to pound Paoli, scoring 17 straight points in the fourth quarter before Dylan Hoover hit a long 2-pointer at 1:30 for the Rams. That, however, was their only points of the quarter.

Chaz Schneider made two 3s and scored on a putback and steal and layup in the fourth quarter, and he was one of six Braves who came off of the bench and scored in the final eight minutes.

Another big difference in the game was Brownstown made 15 3-point shots, while Paoli didn’t make any of the four it attempted. McCory finished with a game-high 20 points, while Allman had 18, including five 3s, Eggersman 11 and Schneider 10. All 12 Braves who played in the game scored.

Wroblewski led Paoli (1-14) with 11 and Aaron Key had 10.

“I thought our effort was excellent, and our morale was great. Our chemistry was great and our guys built off that and got some confidence and started shooting the ball,” Benter said.

“There are a lot of positives. There’s a lot of things we did really well, and if our guys recognize tonight why they were successful, hopefully from here on out we can build on this.”

BROWNSTOWN — Coach Dave Benter wanted his team to get off to a strong start on Friday night against Clarksville, and that is exactly what Brownstown Central did in the Mid-Southern Conference game.

Spencer Allman hit three 3-pointers in the first 3:05 of the game and went on to score a career-high 31 points to lead the Braves to a 74-60 Mid-Southern Conference win.

Allman made four 3-pointers in the first period to spark the Braves to a 20-10 lead. He finished with six 3-pointers and shot 9 for 16 from the floor and 7 for 9 from the line.

“On our very first possession, we ran one of our plays we start out most games with where I come off a player screen, and my defender got caught up and I went ahead and shot it and it went in,” Allman said. “We ran the exact same play a couple possessions later and the same thing happened. I had a feeling it was going to be a good night from there on.”

Benter said he was pleased with the Braves’ man-to-man defense in the first period.

“I thought we kind of re-established ourselves on the defensive end,” he said. “I thought we kind of got away from that the last couple weeks. They ended up with 60 points, but a lot of those came late once the game was decided. I thought we defended for the most part pretty well.”

The Generals shot 4 for 14 from the floor in the opening period and 20 for 53 for the game, while the Braves were 26 for 62 for the night.

“My only complaint was I thought we missed some blockouts in the first half,” Benter said. “When we defended and rebounded, I thought we did an excellent job in transition offense. We moved the ball well and we shot the ball pretty well.”

Jalen Snodgrass opened the scoring in the second period with a 3-pointer from the left wing and Evan Eggersman and Skylar Thompson made layups, the latter with 5:10 on the clock, to boost Brownstown’s lead to 27-12.

Thompson had a strong second quarter, making three baskets and converting a three-point play, to help the Braves take a 35-20 lead at the break.

Allman stayed hot in the third period with two more 3-pointers and he converted a three-point play, and the Braves also got a lift from Tanner Payton with three baskets.

Allman stayed aggressive at the offensive end in the fourth quarter with a basket and was 5 for 6 at the line.

“One of the emphasis in practice this week was ball movement and help-side defense on the ball, and tonight I thought we did a lot better job than what we had been and we moved the ball,” Allman said. “I think moving the ball got their defense scrambling a little bit and got us open shots.”

Payton finished with 10 points and two rebounds, while Thompson had nine points and three rebounds, and Benter said he likes the progress they have made.

“Now that Skylar and Tanner are coming along, we’ve got more than just one guy inside that can score,” he said. “We’ve got more options inside, and Brett (McCory) has been shooting the ball well. I thought Jalen probably played his best game in a while. I thought he distributed the basketball really well and made quick decisions. I thought he got the transition offense started a lot throughout the game.”

The Braves had only eight turnovers on the night, and Benter said, “I thought our guys made better decisions on offense and made the extra pass. We changed up our defense a few times in the first half and we were effective at times, but the thing we’ve got to take from this is we’ve got to finish it with defensive rebounding.
“This is one of the better transition teams I’ve coached, so when we get stops and defensive rebounds, this team has a lot of capability to put points on the board at the other end quickly. We did that at times tonight, and the only times we didn’t is when we didn’t block out well.”

The rebounds were even at 32, with Eggersman leading Brownstown with seven and Allman had six.

Billy Edelen topped the Generals (6-9) in scoring with 12 points and Cory Brown added 10.

This was just the second time this season the Braves scored 70 or more points. Their season-high of 86 came in their opening game at Salem.

BROWNSTOWN — A few hours after Brownstown Central junior Maria Allen hit the game-winning shot for the Lady Braves on Saturday afternoon against Corydon Central, those schools’ boys teams squared off in a Mid-Southern Conference game.

Brownstown was coming off of its first MSC loss of the season in six tries, giving up a 14-point lead and losing to Charlestown 67-62 on Friday, while Corydon entered the game with a 3-0 conference mark.

Brownstown nearly allowed Corydon to repeat what Charlestown did.

The Braves built a 16-point lead late in the third quarter before allowing the Panthers to cut it to 10.

Brownstown then got it back up to 16 before Corydon slowly chipped away and pulled to within 56-48 with 40 seconds left in the game.

The Braves had only made one of its four free throws in the fourth quarter before Brett McCory stepped to the line twice in the final 24 seconds and made four to allow the Braves to move to 6-1 in the MSC with a 60-52 victory.

“We got up 16, and from that point on, I was really disappointed with how we played,” Braves coach Dave Benter said. “We go seven straight possessions (in the fourth quarter) with either missing a front end of a one-and-one, taking a questionable shot or turning the ball over, and it’s kind of the same thing that happened (Friday) night.”

Thankfully, this game didn’t turn out like Friday.

“You’ve got to learn from what happened (Friday) night, and we were a missed 3 away from (Corydon) having a two-possession game, and you just cannot do that,” Benter said. McCory opened the game with consecutive 3-pointers for a 6-0 lead, and Brownstown managed to pull ahead 12-5 on two straight baskets by Evan Eggersman. Corydon made it 14-9 game at the end of 8 minutes.

The Braves and Panthers each had spurts of four straight points early in the second quarter. Ryan Coffman’s drive pulled Corydon to within 24-22 at 1:15, but then Brownstown had a 3-pointer by Spencer Allman and a three-point play by Eggersman for an eight-point advantage at halftime. Allman had nine points and Eggersman seven, as they outscored the Panthers 16-13 in the second.

Justin Yates made a free throw, Brandon Dunaway nailed a 3 and Tyler Ross scored in the final 1:50 for the Panthers, but they trailed 46-33 heading into the fourth.

Allman’s drive and layup in transition at 2:56 boosted Brownstown’s lead to 56-40. The remainder of the period, though, Corydon outscored the home team 12-4. The closest the Panthers could get, however, was the final margin.

“I thought Spencer Allman played a great third quarter and early fourth. He saw the floor really well, created a bunch of shots and we got separation,” Benter said.

Allman led the Braves with 18 points, followed by McCory’s 16 and Eggersman’s 15.

BROWNSTOWN — Coach Dave Benter says there are three things you need to do to protect a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter of a high school basketball game.

“You’ve got to take care of the basketball, defend and rebound, and you’re going to win the game. Our guys didn’t do that. We really did none of that,” Benter said after Charlestown rallied for a 67-62 Mid-Southern Conference win over Brownstown Central on Friday night on the Braves’ floor.

When Brett McCory made a layup with 6:35 remaining, Brownstown held a 57-43 lead. The Braves had a turnover on their next possession, and Aaron Daniel made two free throws with 6:07 to make it a 57-45 score.

The Braves missed a shot from close range on their next possession, and Benter said that is when the momentum started to change.

“Once we missed that easy shot and we were up 12, they got in transition and we fouled (Anthony) Lloyd,” he said. “I thought from that point on, it rejuvenated their guys. They came in and made one free throw and they made back-to-back 3s and had a three-point play. We gave them a lot of points in a hurry.”

Lloyd suffered a wrist injury on the play and had to leave the game, and Steven Coyne made one free throw with 5:40 remaining. Skylar Thompson scored a reverse layup along the baseline to put the Braves on top 59-46, but then the Braves hit a dry spell for 1:13 and the Pirates went on an 11-0 run and cut the difference to 59-57 on a layup by Daniel with 4:20 remaining.

The teams traded points over the next 2:18, and Spencer Allman made a free throw with 1:38 on the clock to give the Braves a 62-61 lead. That was the end of the scoring for the Braves, as the Pirates closed the game on a 6-0 run to raise their MSC record to 5-0.

“I thought from us defending pretty well in the third quarter and at the start of the fourth, we completely fell apart in the fourth,” Benter said, as Charlestown outscored Brownstown 25-11 in the final period. “We couldn’t get back because we kept turning the ball over. They were scoring so much in transition that we couldn’t get back. We went to the zone late in the game again and didn’t rotate very well.

“We had Evan (Eggersman), Jalen (Snodgrass) and Spencer all with four fouls, so we sat them at different times and I didn’t think they got their groove back offensively.”

They combined to shoot 1 for 6 in the fourth period, and as a team, the Braves shot 4 for 12 from the floor in the fourth quarter.

“I thought we started making some poor decisions on offense, and that led to some easy baskets for them,” Benter said. “They’re such a good transition team and offensive rebounding team that if you turn the basketball over, they’re going to make you pay, and that’s what happened.
“Give credit to Charlestown. They came in, were down 14 with 6 minutes left and I thought they showed a lot of mental toughness to come back and make good plays like good teams and seniors should do.”

The Pirates shot 7 for 15 from the floor and 9 for 14 in free throws in the final period. Charlestown made 25 of 34 free throws, and the Braves were called for 23 fouls.

Brownstown got off to a good start offensively, as Allman made two 2-pointers and a 3-point shot by 4:30 to put his team on top 9-4.

Later in the quarter, Tanner Payton made his season debut for the Braves and responded with a 2-point shot, a 3-pointer and three free throws for eight points in the period to spark the Braves to a 19-16 lead.

McCory hit two 3-pointers in the second quarter, and his second came with 4:05 on the clock that put the Braves on top 27-22. Thompson banked in a layup at the buzzer to put the Braves on top 33-28 at the half.

Allman made two 3-pointers and McCory and Thompson also made 3-pointers in the third period when the Braves outscored the Pirates 18-14 to increase their lead to 51-42 going into the fourth period.

Payton, a 6-foot-3 sophomore, finished with 12 points.

“He can score, and he helped us match up because they have a lot of perimeter-type post guys, which he is capable of going out and guarding,” Benter said of Payton. “He came in and gave us some good minutes.”

Allman topped the Braves with 18 points and McCory added 11.

Kyle Hayes topped the Pirates with 21 points, including 10 for 10 from the foul line. Daniel added 14 as the Pirates increased their season record to 10-1.

AUSTIN — Midway through the second quarter of Tuesday’s Mid-Southern Conference game at Austin, Brownstown Central’s defense picked up, and that led to offense.

The Braves went on an 11-4 run for a 29-18 lead at 4:14 of the second. They allowed the Eagles to get within nine once before pulling ahead 40-25 at halftime.

From that point on, Brownstown maintained a double-digit lead, and the Braves improved to 5-0 in the MSC and 10-1 overall with a 69-51 victory.

It was a good way to kick-start the Braves’ four games in seven days.

“I thought we turned up our defensive intensity,” Braves coach Dave Benter said of the second quarter, when his team had a 22-11 scoring advantage. “I didn’t think we came out very focused defensively, and I thought as the game progressed there in the second quarter, we started to turn up our defense a little bit and that led to some easy baskets for us.”

The lead in the first quarter never rose above four for either team, and the game was tied twice. After Lawyer Wintin came off the bench and nailed a 3-pointer at 1:24 for a 14-13 Austin lead, Spencer Allman made a basket and Jalen Snodgrass connected on a trey for an 18-14 score going into the second period.

Brownstown’s run through the first 4 minutes of the second period forced Austin coach Mike Deaton to call a timeout. Austin’s Jake DeWitt scored for a nine-point game at 3:25, but the Braves then scored five straight on Trey DeHart’s assist to Brett McCory for a banked-in 3 and Evan Eggersman’s steal and layup.

The Braves shot 8 of 13 from the field and made all four of their free throws in the second. Austin was 5 of 12 from the field with one free throw, but the Eagles turned the ball over four times.

While Brownstown was able to hold onto a double-digit lead the entire second half, Austin didn’t go away.

The Eagles cut the difference to 12 three times in the third quarter. But the Braves responded one of those times with six straight points for an 18-point game. Following Skylar Thompson’s two free throws at 2:25, Brownstown had a 49-31 lead. Allman’s power move to the basket off of an inbounds play at 29 seconds set the score at 55-39 entering the final period.

Austin was within 14 points twice and 13 points at 3:53, but Brownstown edged the Eagles 14-12 in the fourth quarter for the win. The largest deficit was 20 points on Eggersman’s score in transition at 2:26, making it 69-49.

“Both teams were just trading baskets for a while, it seemed like, in the second half,” Benter said, “and then about the 4-minute mark, we had been trading baskets it seemed like forever, and they called a timeout and I thought we cranked up our defense again and went on a run. Then, we were able to extend the lead up to 20.”

The Braves had balance in scoring with Allman leading the way with 19 points, followed by Eggersman’s 16 and Snodgrass and McCory scoring 12 apiece.

Andrew Clark was the only Eagle in double figures, scoring 12 points.

Brownstown only outscored Austin 29-26 in the second half, and Benter said it will be important to pick up the defensive intensity when the Braves head into back-to-back MSC home games on Friday and Saturday with Charlestown and Corydon Central.

“I thought offensively we did some things. We’re just not communicating defensively at times,” he said. “We’ve got to communicate, and that’s so important on the defensive end. I thought we rebounded defensively pretty well, and once we got stops, I thought we did a nice job in transition with the basketball and moving the basketball really well.”

Charlestown will enter Friday’s game with records of 4-0 in the MSC and 9-1 overall, and Corydon is 3-0 in the MSC and 7-4 overall. Then on Monday, the Braves will close their stretch with a non-conference makeup game at Mitchell.

BROWNSTOWN — After trailing 10-8 through one quarter of play on Friday night, it’s a good thing the Brownstown Central Braves hit a streak in the second eight minutes.

The Braves only hit one of their five 3-point attempts and missed several shots underneath the basket in the first quarter, but it wasn’t much better for the Dragons, who were 3 of 16 from the field.

In the second quarter, however, Brownstown scored the first 14 points to pull away, and the Braves collected a 69-54 Mid-Southern Conference victory.

Not only did the win set the Braves’ season record at 9-1 and MSC mark at 4-0, but it also gave coach Dave Benter his 200th career victory.

“We played extremely well in the second quarter,” said Benter, who is 200-96 in his 13th season. “The first quarter, we missed a lot of layups, but they missed a lot of layups, too. The way we missed layups in the first quarter, they could have easily had an extended lead because I didn’t think either team defended real well. Both teams gave up a lot of layups, a lot of easy baskets.”

Brett McCory’s 3-pointer from the right wing at 3:45 of the first quarter set the score at 8-5, but Silver Creek responded with a 3 from Grant Meyer and a putback by Andrew Hoke for a 10-8 lead.

A 3 from Spencer Allman early in the second quarter started the Braves on a 14-0 run. During the Braves’ streak, the Dragons had four turnovers and were 0 of 3 from the field. Silver Creek’s only field goal of the period was Meyer’s lucky bounce at 2:14, but his team was down 22-12. Brownstown shot 7 of 11 from the field and 3 of 4 from the free-throw line for a 27-13 lead at halftime.

“In the second quarter, I thought we started making it a lot more difficult for them to get to the basket, and we rebounded so well tonight and that led to some easy baskets at the other end,” Benter said. The Braves finished with a 45-28 advantage in that department. “I thought our ball movement was really good offensively, and after the first quarter, we ended up scoring 61 points the last three quarters.”

The Braves got a little too comfortable in the third period, committing seven turnovers. The Dragons were with 11 points twice in the first minute, but thankfully for Benter and the Braves, big 3s from McCory at 5:31 and from Jalen Snodgrass off of an offensive rebound by Allman at 1:20 helped them stay ahead. Snodgrass’ score gave the Braves a 44-23 lead, and they took a 44-28 lead into the fourth quarter.

“I think we got really comfortable once we got up 15 or 20 points and were too nonchalant with the basketball,” Benter said. “They are way too quick, and they may be the quickest team we’ve played all year, so you can’t be nonchalant against teams like that because they will turn you over and convert some easy baskets. They did that, but we were able to get some easy baskets also against their press.”

Brownstown’s lead reached as high as 24 in the fourth quarter following Allman’s second 3 of the game at 4:24 and Evan Eggersman’s steal on an inbounds play and layup at the 4-minute mark. Silver Creek managed to outscore the home team 26-25 in the fourth, but the Dragons were too far behind.

“We knew they wouldn’t quit until the end, and they had been very competitive,” Benter said of the Dragons. “We knew as a team they could be explosive with their quickness and their 3-point shooting ability that once we got that separation, we could not let them go on a big run. I thought our guys did a pretty good job of not letting that happen.”

Allman led all scorers with 22 points, while McCory scored 18 and Eggersman chipped in nine points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

Silver Creek had three players reach double figures, with Caleb Sprigler scoring 15, Meyer 12 and Jacob Brooks 10.

HANOVER — After a sluggish performance the night before, coach Dave Benter said it was good to see his Brownstown Central basketball team return to its normal offensive flow on Saturday night.

The Braves scored the first nine points of the game and led all the way for a 66-44 win over Southwestern (Hanover) on Stan Weber Night. The former Braves and Rebels coach was honored and inducted into the Southwestern Hall of Fame.

The Braves were able to find holes in Southwestern’s defense on the outside and under the basket. Jalen Snodgrass got the offense started when he hit a 3-pointer from the right wing for a 3-0 score at 6:40.

When the Rebels came out on the Braves’ perimeter shooters, the visitors worked the ball underneath and Evan Eggersman scored on a layup, Jake Olson dropped in a pair of free throws and Eggersman scored on another power move to the basket, and it was 9-0 with 3:50 on the clock.

“They came out and kind of held the ball against us, and we were able to force a couple of turnovers early,” Benter said. “As they sped up, we had a little bit of trouble containing the ball a couple of times in the first half and we fouled them, but as the game went on, we adjusted and guarded them better.”

Eggersman scored seven and Olson four points in the first period to help the Braves take a 16-9 lead.

Benter said there were some rough spots his team had to overcome.

“There just wasn’t a lot of flow to the game, and that’s hard to play offensively,” he said. “I thought we defended well at times, but we kept putting them at the free-throw line. I thought once we were able to get in the flow, we were able to defend and that led to some easy baskets. I thought our guys got in a little bit of a groove then.”

Snodgrass added a pair of 3-pointers, Spencer Allman and Trey DeHart both hit 3s and Eggersman added a basket and three free throws in the second period when the Braves outscored the Rebels 18-12. Southwestern cut Brownstown’s lead to 16-13 before Allman hit a 3-pointer from the right wing that started his team on a 12-0 run, and Snodgrass finished the rally with a 3-pointer at 4:15 that set the score at 28-13. Brownstown led 34-21 at the break

The Braves shot 11 for 18 in the first half, but could have had more offensive opportunities if they hadn’t committed six turnovers in the second period. Southwestern shot 8 for 18 in the first half.

“They made us shoot from outside, and Jalen came out early and that opened some things up and Spencer got a couple looks,” Benter said. “It was good to see our guys, as poorly as we shot (Friday) night, come back and shoot that well tonight.”

Snodgrass, who made four 3-pointers for the night, said, “My teammates made a lot of good picks for me to get open. We ran our offense pretty much to a T. Our timing was right. We did everything on the offensive end to get open shots. Coach said if we got open looks to take them, and that’s what we did.”

The Braves turned to Allman for offense in the third period, and the senior responded with two baskets and five free throws for nine points. The Braves were leading 37-28 when Allman made a layup at 4:02 that began a 15-0 run. A 3-pointer by DeHart at 1:30 set the score at 52-28. The Braves outscored the Rebels 18-9 in the period to increase their lead to 52-30 going into the fourth period.

A layup by Snodgrass at 4:15 of the fourth period gave the Braves a 61-34 lead that matched their largest advantage of the night.

“Coach said he thought we played really well and showed good leadership,” Snodgrass said. “When we got in the locker room at halftime, since we had been hitting so many outside shots, Coach said that when they come flying at us to lift them up and look inside or drive to the hole and it would be open, so we just made simple adjustments in the second half.”

This was the second week in a row in which the Braves played three games.

“I didn’t think necessarily we played our best, but the last quarter and a half tonight was a good way to end this busy stretch because I thought there were definitely some positives in the last quarter and a half,” Benter said. “I thought our ball movement was great. (Friday) night I didn’t think we moved the ball as well. I thought we came back tonight and moved the ball and played really unselfish and had open shots. We had a lot of different guys score and be threats, and this team is capable of having that. It’s a good win.”

Eggersman topped the Braves with 19 points, while Allman and Snodgrass scored 14 each and Olson eight.

Hunter Means topped the Rebels with 14 points and LaMarkus Jenkins scored 13.

BROWNSTOWN — Friday’s Brownstown Central-West Washington boys basketball game became a defensive battle.

That’s because neither team was sharp offensively.

In the first half, the lead never rose above three, as Brownstown led by that many once and West Washington led by that margin three times. Also, the game was tied three times, including 21-all at halftime.

Brownstown managed to gain some separation in the third period, leading by as many as 11 in the final minute. That’s a good thing for the Braves because by the 2:27 mark of the fourth quarter, they had only scored one point. They finished 0 of 6 from the field, but 11 of 14 from the free-throw line.

The Senators were within five points on Trevor Nice’s drive at 1:51, but free throws saved the Braves and allowed them to secure a 48-38 victory.

“They did an outstanding job scouting us,” Braves coach Dave Benter said. “They forced us to try making some shots, and we did not shoot the ball well (16 of 41). I thought both teams defended well. I thought for the most part we defended well, and they were really physical with us.”

Evan Eggersman was a force for the Braves in the first quarter, scoring eight of his game-high 15 points and pulling down seven of his game-high nine rebounds. Sharpshooter Spencer Allman was held to 0 of 5 from the field in the first half and 1 of 2 from the foul line for one point.

“They tried taking Spencer away after Evan got off to a really good start,” Benter said, “so they did a really nice job guarding us. There’s things offensively we’ve got to do that could help us, even against good defenses. Our ball movement has got to be quicker, we’ve got to push in transition, our screening, our cutting’s got to be better.”

Trey DeHart’s basket with eight seconds remaining in the first quarter gave Brownstown a 10-9 lead.

To open the second quarter, Logan Hall came up with a steal and dished the ball to Nice for a score at 7:15, and Cody Huff scored two minutes later for a 13-10 Senator lead. Chase Klinge’s pull-up in transition and Allman’s free throw evened the game at 13 before Chad Thompson and Huff returned the lead to West Washington.

Brownstown then scored six straight, but Thompson converted a three-point play for a tie game at 49 seconds. Jalen Snodgrass then found Jake Olson open inside, but yet again, the Senators had an answer, as Huff connected on a jumper for a tie at the break.

The Braves had a couple of scoring spurts in the third quarter, with Allman’s first made field goal of the night at 3:31 making it a 30-24 game and DeHart’s feed to Brett McCory at 1:07 setting the score at 35-26. Snodgrass’ assist to Skylar Thompson inside gave Brownstown an 11-point advantage, but Nice’s drive in the final 30 seconds made it 37-28 going into the fourth.

Midway through the final period, the score was only 38-30. Luckily for the Braves, they made their free throws down the stretch and the Senators missed three 3-pointers and a field goal in the final minute.

“I thought both teams were flat, and I hope that had something to do with defense,” Benter said. The Senators shot 15 of 44 from the field, and included in the Braves’ numbers was a dismal 2 of 18 from 3-point land. “Anytime you go 2 of 18 from the 3, it makes it really difficult when they’ve got the size they’ve got inside (one player at 6-foot-6 and another at 6-5).”

Several of those 3-point attempts were good looks, Benter said, but they just weren’t falling.

“It’s not that I thought we shot bad shots,” he said. “It’s shots that we need to start making. A couple of those were really great shooters and good looks.”

Joining Eggersman in the double-digit scoring club was Snodgrass with 10 points, including five free throws in the fourth quarter.

Nice led West Washington with 12 points, while Clayton Sullivan added 11.

Hopefully tonight at Southwestern (Hanover), the Braves (7-1) can get both sides of the ball on equal terms.

“We’ve got to get our offense to catch up where our defense is,” Benter said. “It was the exact opposite early in the year. Our offense, I thought, was probably ahead of where our teams the last couple years have been but our defense is way behind, and now our defense has caught up a little bit and offensively I don’t think we’ve played very well lately.”

Braves remain perfect in MSC

RAMSEY — A big third quarter was just what the Brownstown Central Braves needed to gain some separation from North Harrison.

The Braves’ transition game and defense helped them leap ahead 26-8 on 10 straight points by 4:20 of the second quarter of Monday’s Mid-Southern Conference contest, but North Harrison pulled within 30-16 at halftime.

Brownstown then outscored North Harrison 21-7 in the third quarter, and 3-pointers by Brett McCory, Jalen Snodgrass and Trey DeHart in the final 1:38 of the period delivered a solid punch. The Braves collected a 68-46 victory, improving to 3-0 in the MSC.

“In the third quarter, I thought we played exceptionally well,” Braves coach Dave Benter said. “I thought we moved the ball really well, we defended for the most part pretty well, and we had to get some more separation to put the game out of reach.”

Aside from a pair of 3-pointers by Spencer Allman, including one at 7:20 giving the Braves its largest lead at 54-25, and some good post play by Skylar Thompson, Brownstown got a little sloppy in the fourth quarter. The Braves turned the ball over six times and were outscored 23-17.

“I didn’t think we adjusted quickly enough when they started coming up and half-court trapping us,” Benter said. “We’ve got to be mentally sharper and get a guy in the middle of the floor and move the ball quicker and use ball fakes. It took us about three possessions to do that. I think we turned it over three straight times, but then we adjusted.”

The first quarter started out well for the Braves, as they built an 11-2 lead at 3:19 off of Allman’s three-point play and led 16-4 on Jake Olson’s transition layup at 58 seconds. They led 16-6 after eight minutes of play.

After Dylan Janes’ layup off of a turnover at 6:44 of the second quarter, the Cougars didn’t score again until Lincoln Jones’ score in the paint at 2:36. Thompson’s offensive putback at 6:02 kick-started Brownstown’s 10-0 run.

The Cougars were within 12 on Collin Book’s score at 45 seconds, but Allman scored in the final seconds.

“A lot of our points came off of our defense or in transition,” Benter said of the first half, when the Braves forced the Cougars into nine turnovers. “I didn’t think our ball movement was very good in our half-court offense. In the third quarter, I thought we moved the ball really well.”

The Braves had short runs off of the Cougars’ scores from the field and foul line in the third quarter. Allman gave Brownstown a 40-20 lead at 2:05 on a pair of free throws, and after Jones made one at the line for North Harrison, Jalen Snodgrass had a pull-up and a 3-pointer to make it a 48-21 lead for the Braves at 34 seconds. Brownstown took a 51-23 lead into the fourth.

North Harrison outscored Brownstown 10-3 and forced the Braves into four turnovers 2:41 into the final period. Brownstown, however, never allowed the Cougars to get any closer than 21 in the quarter.

Thompson scored nine of his 15 points in the fourth quarter and Allman had six of his game-high 20 to lead the Braves.

One thing that has gone well for the Braves so far this season is defending other teams’ big guys. North Harrison’s Jones stood at 6-foot-5, but Thompson, at 6-foot-3, and other Brownstown players defended him well.

“We just work in practice and try to get ready for him, and we go over the things we need to do to guard him,” Thompson said of bigger post players. “I think we stayed in front of (Jones) and kept him off the backboard and he didn’t rebound very much, so I think that’s what helped us. I was trying to block him out, and I was trying to score and keep him out of the middle.”

Benter was impressed with Thompson and other Braves defending the post. Jones’ 11 points were spread out, and he only had three rebounds.

“I thought (Thompson) was hard to guard inside,” Benter said. “He got to the foul line, he posted hard, he rebounded well and for the most part he defended Jones pretty well. (Jones) is a really nice player, and I thought our guys, Jake, Evan (Eggersman) and Skylar, all did a nice job on him.”

Losing 6-foot-8 Taylor Wischmeier to graduation concerned Benter going into the season, but this winter, the Braves have done well when there has been a size differential.

“It’s an ultimate team game,” Benter said. “You’ve got to have good ball pressure, you’ve got to have help-side, and our guys have really understood when we have good big guys to pressure the ball, to get help-side, to double when they need to, and then our post guys have been physical, they’ve got them off the block and made it difficult for them to score easy baskets.”

John Martin led North Harrison with 12 points off of the bench.

ELNORA — Every possession in Thursday’s championship game of the Graber Post Buildings Classic was crucial.

The matchup between undefeated Class 2A teams Brownstown Central, ranked fifth, and Forest Park, ranked third, proved to be tense, as the deficit never grew larger than five.

Spencer Allman’s long 3-pointer with 31 seconds remaining in the third period pulled Brownstown within 31-30, but Forest Park’s Kyle Wilgus knocked down a 3 from the left wing for a four-point lead entering the fourth period.

Skylar Thompson’s offensive putback 56 seconds into the final quarter tied the game at 34, but Jake Meyer knocked down his second 3 of the game at 6:40, and the Rangers never lost the lead in winning 46-42.

Brownstown was within one point twice, and with 22 seconds remaining, Allman dribbled along the left baseline and pulled up for a jumper and it rolled around the rim and in to make it 44-42. Nathan Bromm made two free throws a few seconds later for a four-point game.

Evan Eggersman then drove in the lane for Brownstown and missed, but Thompson grabbed the offensive board and shot the ball to Trey DeHart, who missed from long range. Forest Park grabbed the rebound and held on.

“They maximized a couple late possessions,” Braves coach Dave Benter said of the Rangers. “They went to their clear-out play and lob and we talked about that in timeout and they came out of the timeout and scored on it again. Our guys tried to adjust, and Meyer hit a huge 3 at the top of the key.”

Out of a timeout with 1:17 remaining, the Braves brought the ball in from midcourt, but mishandled it on a handoff and turned the ball over to the Rangers. That could have led to a score and changed the outcome.

“Every possession in this type of game is crucial, and we knew that going into the game,” Benter said. “If we just clean up a couple possessions late in the game, we had two crucial turnovers, we had two or three wide-open 3s in the last three or four minutes with our good shooters, the guys that we want shooting the basketball, and you’ve got to make shots like that against a team like Forest Park.”

All five Forest Park starters were 6-foot-4, and the Rangers had seven players between 6-4 and 6-5.

“I don’t know if I’ve seen a 2A team that is that big and long at every single position,” Benter said. “But I thought our guys really physically battled. I thought Evan probably played his best game of the year. He really battled inside, he defended their big guys, he rebounded, he scored. He just played a really good basketball game.”

A steal and layup by Jalen Snodgrass and a wide-open score in the post by Jake Olson propelled Brownstown to a 9-4 lead by 4:37 of the first quarter. But the Rangers outscored the Braves 10-3 the rest of the period for a two-point lead heading into the second.

Meyer nailed a 3 to open the second before Wade Toppe responded with one for Brownstown, and then Allman drove in the lane at 5:11 for a 17-all score. Forest Park scored five of the final seven points for a 22-19 edge at halftime.

In the third quarter, Allman had a long 2-pointer and Snodgrass had a spin move in the lane for a score in transition for a 25-22 Brownstown lead by 4:58. The teams then traded baskets, with Grant Welp making a trey and a field goal for Forest Park to tie the score at 25 and 27. The Rangers followed with four straight points, and they led by four entering the fourth.

“We knew that we would have to play really well to not (only) win the game, but to just be in the game,” Benter said. “The only negative is I don’t think we shot the ball very well (17 of 44), but when other teams don’t shoot the ball, I’d like to think we have something to do with that. And I think Forest Park had something to do with that tonight.”

Eggersman led all scorers with 13 points, and he pulled down seven rebounds. Allman was next with 12 points and a game-high eight rebounds, while Snodgrass had eight points. Eggersman and Snodgrass were named to the all-tournament team, and Allman was selected the most valuable player of the three-day tournament.

Welp was the only Ranger in double figures, scoring 11 points.

“I’m disappointed we lost,” Benter said. “I’m also encouraged…I thought we’ve grown the last couple days defensively in just our intelligence on the defensive end. We’ve made it difficult for teams to score, and I feel we’ve got guys capable of scoring. We missed some shots tonight, but that’s going to come as the season goes on.”

The Braves fell to 5-1, while the Rangers improved to 8-0. Brownstown will begin the new year on Monday with a makeup Mid-Southern Conference game at North Harrison.

ELNORA — The first half of Brownstown Central’s game with Barr-Reeve on Wednesday night was full of short runs by each team.

But in the second half of the semifinal game of the Graber Post Buildings Classic at North Daviess High School, Brownstown extended its runs and held Barr-Reeve without a field goal until 3:48 remained in the game.

On its next two possessions, Barr-Reeve made field goals, but by that time, the Vikings were too far behind. The Braves (5-0) claimed a 63-38 victory to send them into tonight’s championship game against Forest Park (7-0), which sailed to a 76-45 semifinal victory over Springs Valley.

“It was just a matter of us playing with more energy,” said Braves sophomore Brett McCory, who scored 11 points, including three 3-pointers. “We played a lot better tonight (than Tuesday against South Knox). Our defensive energy was a lot better, more people came out with more energy and we had more leaders.”

Brownstown jumped out to an 11-4 lead on a pair of free throws and a field goal by Spencer Allman with 2:48 to go in the first quarter. Barr-Reeve then went on a 7-0 run to even the score, but Brownstown followed with five straight to lead 16-11 after one period of play.

Then, in the second quarter, the Vikings scored five straight to pull within 19-18 at 9:22, the Braves answered with five consecutive points by 5:09 and the Vikings had four straight to make it 26-24. Brownstown then closed out the half with a 31-25 lead.

The Braves allowed the Vikings’ 5-foot-8 guard, Matt Swartzentruber, to get loose in the second quarter. He scored 10 points off of drives in the period to keep his team within reach. He finished the game with a team-high 13 points.

“I think they are at their best getting up and down, and we really wanted to take their transition away,” Braves coach Dave Benter said. “We thought that was the key of the game, not letting No. 10 (Swartzentruber) get loose in transition because he’s so crafty with the basketball. He really hurt us in the first half.”

But in the second half, the Braves shut him down, as he only attempted one field goal. He drove to the lane three times and drew the foul, but he was only made half of his six attempts.

He wasn’t the only Viking to struggle in the half. Barr-Reeve was 0 of 8 from the field in the third quarter, and the Vikings turned the ball over seven times. Meanwhile, Brownstown scored 14 straight points, beginning with Jalen Snodgrass’ steal and spin move in the lane for a score at 6:50 and ending when Swartzentruber made two free throws at 5:31. The Braves led 45-27 going into the fourth quarter.

Benter credited his team’s defense in the second half for limiting Barr-Reeve.

“We scored a couple of quick baskets, and I thought they got a little bit frustrated and they didn’t make any shots,” Benter said. “I hope some of that had to do with our defense. They were shooting perimeter jump shots, we got some long rebounds, got a couple steals and we got some easy baskets, and our guys just started playing with a lot of confidence, and all of a sudden, we started shooting the ball well.”

That type of defense, he said, has to be consistent.

“We’ve proven it tonight and in the Seymour game that we’re capable of being a good defensive team,” Benter said. “Now, it’s a matter of our guys having the right mental frame, the right leadership to come in and do that night in and night out for us to take the next step to where we need to be as a team.”

Through the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, McCory made a basket and Allman drove in for a score and made three free throws for a 52-28 lead. Just seconds later, Barr-Reeve’s Heath Graber converted a three-point play for his team’s first field goal of the second half.

The Vikings made two more field goals and three free throws in the quarter, but by that time, they were in too big of a hole. Brownstown’s lead reached 26 on Chaz Schneider’s pull-up jumper with 37 seconds remaining.

“Coach said first of all that we needed to work on talking, and that would take care of a lot of problems in the second half,” McCory said. “I thought we did a better job of coming out and talking. We got a lot of momentum after we got steals coming back, and it led to a lot of offense.”

Aside from McCory's 11 points, Allman finished with a game-high 18 points and Evan Eggersman had 12.

“It was nice to see Brett shoot the ball better tonight again,” Benter said. “He’s capable of putting some points on the board for us, and he did tonight. We really need that. We need guys that are going to step up and take some pressure off Spencer and Evan and Jalen, and we’ve got some guys capable of doing it, and (McCory) did that tonight.”

Tonight’s championship game is a rematch of last year’s tournament semifinal game as well as last season’s regional finals. Brownstown won the tournament game, but lost by two points in the regional.

ELNORA — Since it had been 19 days between games for the Brownstown Central boys basketball team, coach Dave Benter said he was concerned about how his team would perform against South Knox Tuesday night in the Graber Post Buildings Holiday Tournament at North Daviess High School.

“It was a huge concern,” Benter said. “Any time you’re laying off that long you don’t know how your guys are going to respond. I thought we were really lethargic defensively in the first half. I thought they played harder than us. I thought they beat us to some loose balls.”

The Braves overcame the slow start by outscoring the Spartans in each of the last three periods for a 63-52 win.

Brownstown led 12-11 at the end of the first period despite shooting only 4-for-13 from the field. Brett McCory and Trey DeHart both made 3-point baskets in the opening period.

The teams traded points the first two minutes of the second period leaving the Braves on top 17-15 when Skylar Thompson banked in a lay-up at 4:50 that started his team on a 7-0 run. Jalen Snodgrass converted a 3-point play, and Thompson scored another basket from close range to put the Braves on top 24-15 halfway through the period.

Spencer Allman and Snodgrass scored five points each in the period to help the Braves to a 30-23 lead at the half.

“We were fortunate to make more shots than what they were and that’s what gave us the lead,” Benter said. “I thought in the second and third quarters we defended a little bit better. In the first and fourth quarters I thought we gambled too much, and were out of position and got beat back door.” The Braves made 11 of 28 and the Spartans 9 of 19 shots from the floor in the first half.

After Trent Whitton scored a basket for the Spartans in the opening minute of the third period, the Braves responded with a 6-0 run behind a pair of free throws by Evan Eggersman, and two lay-ups by Allman to make it a 36-25 score at 5:42.

Allman scored nine points for the Braves in the third period to spark his team to a 46-37 advantage going into the final period. Eggersman hit a 3-pointer basket from the left wing at 6:00 to put the Braves on top 50-37, and Thompson nailed two free throws at 4:26 to give the Braves their largest lead of the night at 55-41.

The Braves then got a little careless with the ball, resulting in three turnovers that allowed the Spartans to go on a 7-0 run to close to 55-48 with 1:50 remaining but that was a close as South Knox could get as Allman scored off an offensive rebound and added two free throws, and Eggersman made four free throws in the final minute to keep the Braves on top.

Allman topped the Braves with 20 points and Eggersman added 17. Whitton topped the Spartans with 17 points and Alex Meyer added 16.

Eggersman agrees with his coach that the Braves need to be sharp from the start tonight against Barr-Reeve. “We had been practicing. We didn’t take many days off at all because we need to get a lot better.

“We were hoping to come out with a better start. We didn’t have any leaders out there. We didn’t defend well. Our defense leads to our offense and that is why our offense was kind of slow the first two periods.

“We came out a little better in the second half, but to win these next two days we’ve got to be a lot better. I think we’re going to watch the game film (this morning) because there is definitely a lot of things we need to work on to get better.”

The Braves finished with 20-for-48 shooting and the Spartans made 19 of 42. Brownstown held a 27-23 advantage in rebounds with Allman leading the Braves with five.

Benter said, “We were fortunate to make more shots than they were and that was why were able to get the lead, but there were several times throughout the game where they were beating us to loose balls and extra possessions, and we’ve got to get that under control.

“I didn’t think we were real mentally sharp and maybe that has to do with the lay-off. South Knox had something to do with that too. I thought they played hard. They passed and they cut hard. They were physical with our guys and at times our guys didn’t react well.”

Eggersman said, “We’re definitely a better basketball team than we’re showing. We’ve got to have more leaders. I need to be more of a leader and our other seniors, and everyone coach has looked for to be a leader and no one has really stepped up yet.”

The Braves are 4-0 and will face Barr-Reeve at 7:30 tonight. The Vikings edged North Daviess 38-37 in the final game Tuesday night.

Box score

SCOTTSBURG — The sign of a good ballclub is one that doesn’t bring its best performance to the gymnasium but goes home with a victory.

On Friday night, Brownstown Central outscored Scottsburg in three of the four periods, but had to rely on a strong finish for a 60-46 Mid-Southern Conference win in the Charles E. Meyer Gymnasium.

“We made enough plays to win,” Braves coach Dave Benter said. “We were the more talented team, and that’s what won it for us. We sure didn’t play the hardest, as hard as them. I didn’t feel we were mentally sharp at all, and that showed how many times we put them at the foul line.”

The Braves were called for 18 fouls and the Warriors made 14 of 19 free throws. The Braves were 15 of 21 in free-throw shooting.

The Warriors opened the game in a 2-3 zone, and then switched to a box-and-one on Spencer Allman in the second period.

Allman didn’t have any problem getting open for shots in the first period, as he hit three 3-pointers and drove for a layup for 11 points.

Allman made his first 3 from the left wing for a 3-0 score at 7:10 and scored again 30 seconds later for a 5-0 lead, and the Braves were in front to stay.

Benter said he was not surprised the Warriors started out in a zone defense.

“They had been mixing it up all year in a 2-3 and man-to-man,” he said. “It might have been the worst thing that could have happened to us hitting early 3s because I felt we got really comfortable just standing around the perimeter and not attacking. Then, they went to that box-and-one and we continued to just stand. You’ve got to attack, put the ball on the floor and get into the lane, and we only had one or two players that were trying to do that consistently.”

Allman said he felt like the Braves had good ball movement in the first quarter.

“We shot the ball pretty well in the first quarter (4 of 9),” he said. “In the second quarter, they went to box-and-one and I got a little bit frustrated. We got some ball movement going and finally got some easy layups.
“In the third quarter, they went back to that 2-3 and got a couple stops and pulled within five. Coach Benter called a timeout and we got refocused and went out and went on another run. It wasn’t very pretty, but a win is a win.”

The Braves held a 41-33 lead going into the final period, and the Warriors cut the difference to 43-38 on a 3-pointer by Kyle Petty with 6:15 remaining. Evan Eggersman made two free throws with 6:07 remaining, and that started the Braves on a 17-8 run.

Allman, Skylar Thompson and Jalen Snodgrass led the Braves down the stretch. Allman hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key and a pair of free throws, Thompson worked his way inside the Scottsburg defense for two layups and Snodgrass closed the scoring for the Braves with two free throws with 1:16 remaining.

“There are three reasons they hung around with us,” Benter said. “On defense, we couldn’t guard Brad Bowling, and the other thing is we kept fouling him and putting him at the foul line (6 of 7 free throws). And offensively, we had a lot of guys just standing and not attacking and questioning whether they should shoot.
“Our offense, our shooting, our attacking was not very good. We’re not a good enough basketball team that we can just show up and beat a team on a nightly basis. Hopefully, we can learn from this and we’ll be much sharper next time.”

Allman said, “Trey (DeHart) came in off the bench (in the second quarter) and had a lot of intensity and picked some of our guys up. I think coming into the game, we kind of looked at it as a walk over and we weren’t really focused, I didn’t think, and coach even said that at halftime. To be a conference contender and a sectional contender, we’ve got to come out every game focused and ready to play.”

Allman had game highs with 25 points and 10 rebounds, and he had three steals. Eggersman added 14 points, and Snodgrass handed out seven assists. Bowling topped the Warriors with 22 points, and Petty added 13 points.

The Braves held the Warriors to 14-for-35 shooting from the floor and forced the home team into 17 turnovers. The Braves also had 17 turnovers and shot 20 of 45 from the floor.

BROWNSTOWN — Brownstown Central began both halves of Friday’s basketball game against county rival Seymour on 11-0 runs.

Falling behind both times didn’t help Seymour, and with shots just not falling, it wasn’t meant to be for the Owls.

The Braves ran off to a 67-42 victory, their third straight over their Jackson County foe.

Brownstown coach Dave Benter liked seeing his team begin both halves with strong stretches.

“The thing that had me really concerned coming into the game was how many layups and open 3s we gave up on Tuesday night (at Salem),” Benter said, “and I really thought for about a five-minute stretch in the first quarter and about a five-minute stretch in the third quarter, we defended awfully well. We made it really difficult for them getting good looks, and then that kind of got our confidence and we were able to get some baskets at the other end.”

Braves senior Spencer Allman had back-to-back 3-pointers at the top of the key and then banked in a runner at 4:42 for an 8-0 lead. Jalen Snodgrass then nailed a 3 for an 11-0 score at the 4-minute mark.

Seymour finally made a basket when Matthew Lucas connected from 3-point land 22 seconds later.

Brownstown then scored four straight before Jacob Carmichael made a bucket for Seymour, but the Owls’ only other point of the quarter was Zach Ladd’s free throw. The Braves led 20-6 after eight minutes, shooting 7 of 13 from the field compared to Seymour’s 2 of 12.

“We let a shooter get loose,” Owls coach Scott Miller said. “Spencer Allman is a heck of a player, he really is. He’s not the quickest kid in the world, he’s not even the most athletic kid in the world, but he’s really smart and he’s got a stroke that you just can’t ignore. How we had planned to defend him at the beginning of the game we didn’t do, and he goes on an 8-0 run and they never looked back from that.”

The second period didn’t fare much better for the Owls, as they shot 7 of 26 from the floor. They didn’t reach double figures until Grant Hubbard made a pair of free throws at 4:44 for a 24-11 score.

Seymour received a late spark off of the bench from Ladd. Lucas fed him the ball for a layup at 1:01, and he stole the ball on the ensuing possession and made another layup for a 33-21 score at halftime.

“I was kind of disgusted at halftime because I felt we could be up 19 or 20, and instead it was a 12-point game and they had the ball coming out (in the third quarter),” Benter said.

The Braves turned that around for their coach in the third quarter. Miller burned two timeouts by the 4:47 mark of the period after Brownstown had four points from Allman, a 3-pointer from Evan Eggersman and two points each from Snodgrass and Brett McCory. During that time, Seymour was 0 of 6 from the field, and the Owls finished the period 3 of 13.

Brownstown had its second 23-point lead of the game at 2:10 when Snodgrass had a nice feed to Wade Toppe down low. Seymour then scored the final six points of the quarter on a score by Connor Kirtley and a drive and two free throws by Kyle Fellows, making it 48-31 going into the fourth.

The Braves’ shots kept falling in the fourth, as five players scored and they were 6 of 10 from the field and 7 of 9 from the line. The Owls, on the other hand, were only 3 of 14 from the field and 5 of 8 from the line.

“Our guys really locked in and focused, and I thought we came out in the second half and really got after it defensively,” Benter said. “We had a lot of different guys make defensive plays and play well. I thought Jake Olson was really active. He played in the second half the way we need him to play. He was really solid on the defensive end and got us some extra possessions.”

Allman led all scorers with 23 points, while Snodgrass had 13 and McCory 10.

Snodgrass, who also had four rebounds, five assists, one block and one steal, said getting on top early in both halves was key for the Braves.

“(The Owls) are hard to score on. They are a real athletic team, real fast, got a bunch of big guys inside,” Snodgrass said. “We just had to get it out and run.”

Coming out with focus and mental toughness and keeping Lucas and Corbin Weller under control, Snodgrass said, were important throughout the night. Lucas and Weller shot a combined 3 of 29 from the field, including 1 of 14 from 3-point range.

“We had to keep those two under control, and I feel we did that very well,” Snodgrass said. “The whole team played great and we all came together when we needed to and executed perfect. The team played great, that’s all I’ve got to say.”

Fellows led Seymour with nine points, while Carmichael finished with eight and Lucas seven. The Owls were 13 of 61 from the field.

“We knew going into this season scoring was going to be an issue, and here we are,” Miller said. “We’ve got to find somebody that can score, it’s that simple. You play a varsity game and you don’t have a single player in double figures, you’ve got problems, and that’s where we’re at.”

At Brownstown