Brownstown girls come up short again in sectional clash

AUSTIN - Jamie Wehmiller, Sammie Bane, Katelyn Shoemaker and Whitney Tormoehlen combined for 57 points and 42 rebounds in Saturday night's Class 2A Sectional 47 championship game at Austin.

Those are some big numbers for the Brownstown Central girls, but it was the ninth-ranked Austin Lady Eagles who compensated for a sluggish start by coming from behind and winning 67-62.

Austin's second-half rally was composed of big 3-point shots and their 16 of 21 showing from the free-throw line, and the Eagles outscored the Braves 47-30. BC was 4-for-11 from the line in the second half and 9-for-20 in the game.

The two teams met in last year's sectional final at Pekin, and the Lady Braves made a surge in the fourth quarter but came up eight points short. During this year's game, the Braves' charge came early, much to the surprise of the Eagles.

Shoemaker's seventh point of the game on a free throw at 7 seconds of the first period made it an 18-9 ball game, but Austin's Katy McIntosh put together a 3-point play in the final two seconds.

By 2:36 of the second quarter, Brownstown's lead grew to 27-14 when Wehmiller found Tormoehlen open in the left corner for a 3-pointer. McIntosh scored Austin's last six points of the half, but BC held the Eagles to 7 of 39 shooting from the field and led 32-20 at halftime.

"That's one of the things that we wanted to do," Braves coach Karla Rieckers said of coming out strong. "Austin can put a lot of points on the board, and so we just had to keep working and working at defense and that's just one of the things that we tried to do. I don't know if they've been held to 20 points in the first half or not, but it was a heck of an effort (by the Braves)."

The Braves kept the double-digit lead in the third quarter until Kelly Hollan hit a field goal at 3:47 to make it 39-31. Austin's Chelsea Jones, who didn't score in the first half, hit a 3-pointer to cut the Braves's lead to five. Then, Bane hit a trey for the Braves before Jones followed with two more from long distance, cutting Brownstown Central's lead to 44-42 going into the fourth quarter.

At 5:38 of the fourth, Ashley Dowling tried one from way out, and it took a high bounce off the back of the rim before falling in to give Austin its first lead of the game. Following a period of seven lead changes and two ties, Austin powered its way into the lane to draw the foul and get to the free-throw line, and that sealed the deal.

"Austin is a team that's not going to go away, and to their credit, they stepped up and made the shots when they needed to and that's just the way the ball game goes sometimes," Rieckers said. "In the first half, we played about as good of a game as we've played all year, and that effort was there. The coaching staff can't say enough about how pleased we are with how they came out with confidence and the effort that they gave.

 "One of the things that we said all year was leave it on the floor, and you can't walk away from a game not thinking that you gave your best effort. I thought Whit and Ashley (Allen) and, even though Brittany (Wehmiller) doesn't get in the game as much, she does a nice job on the sidelines keeping everybody pumped up and knowing what people are supposed to do. From that perspective, I felt like we left it on the floor tonight."

Wehmiller had a huge double-double for BC with 18 points and 16 rebounds. Shoemaker put up a solid 17 points, and she had seven rebounds. Bane contributed 13 points and seven rebounds, and Tormoehlen added nine points and 12 rebounds.

McIntosh had a game-high 30 points for Austin, Michelle Goodin had 14 points and 11 rebounds and Jones scored 12.

"Even though they are sad right now and disappointed," Rieckers said of her team, "when they take some time to step back and reflect and think about the effort that they gave, they should be proud of the effort that they gave."

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Eagles rally to beat Braves

Brownstown Central's Sammie Bane makes a move down the court while Austin's Chelsea Jones (12) tries to catch up during the third quarter of Saturday night's sectional championship game at Austin. Bane scored 13 points, but Austin won 67-62.   Tribune photo by Zach Spicer

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AUSTIN - During Wednesday's sectional game against Eastern (Pekin), it didn't appear that the Brownstown Central Lady Braves were too shaken from last weekend's loss to North Harrison.

Half of BC's six losses this season were decided by one point, two of which came against Eastern and North Harrison. The Braves certainly didn't want to let the Musketeers get by them again.

BC scored first and broke a tie twice in the first quarter, and from that point on, the Braves controlled the tempo of the Class 2A Sectional 47 matchup and won 55-50.

"When we played them during the season, at the end, we played 2-3 a little bit more, they had a couple people step up and hit some big threes and (Kaylyn Rodewig) hit the three that sealed the game for them," Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. "So we decided we would play a little more man (on Wednesday), try to slow step their big players on the inside and see how we beat up against them, and I thought we did a nice job of that."

All of BC's points came from inside the arc and the free throw line except for Whitney Tormoehlen's two 3-pointers in the second quarter. The Braves only attempted five 3-point goals in the game.

In the opening quarter, Jamie Wehmiller drove into the post, either connecting or drawing the foul, and she scored eight to lead BC to a 14-8 advantage after one.

Freshman Maria Allen scored eight of her 12 points of the game in the second, and her field goal at 1:19 gave BC a 30-19 lead. Eastern's Melody Dalton hit a trey 16 seconds later for her 10th point of the game, and Kelsey Collard hit a shot before the buzzer, but BC held on to the 31-24 lead at the half.

"I thought our 2-2-1 half-court trap kind of took them out of their game a little bit," Rieckers said. "They didn't really know what to do. If the guards can't get it past our top people, they can't get it down to their big people, so that's one of the things we wanted to focus on was stopping the guards up top so they couldn't feed the post down low."

Eastern's post consists of Deborah Adkins and Jocelyn Mousty, who are both 6-2, and Melissa Lewis, at 6-foot. BC, on the other hand, has its tallest players at 5-10, but Rieckers thought her team managed the post well.

"We've had different players all year step up at times when we need it," she said. "Jamie, for a guard, she's 5-10 and we knew she had somebody 5-6 (Kelsey Collard) guarding her, and she makes that nice move to the basket so we wanted to get the mismatch with her. Whit, she does a nice job. She's not afraid to get tough on the inside for us when we need that."

But in the third quarter, the teams combined for nine turnovers. The Musketeers got as close as 33-27 at 5:51 with a bucket by Mousty.

"I thought in the third quarter, we got away from what we needed to do because we went a long stretch there where I don't think we scored, and we ended up only scoring four points there in a long stretch, and that's not like us," Rieckers said. "We were standing around too much instead of attacking the basket, and we talked about that at one of the timeouts."

After the timeout, Tormoehlen made two baskets and Sammie Bane pulled up for a jumper for BC. Collard cut the lead to 39-31 with a 3-pointer from the right corner at the buzzer.

The Braves brushed themselves off in the fourth and gained a 10-point lead three times and had it up to 11 with Wehmiller's free throws at 41 seconds. The Musketeers scored the final six points of the game, but the run came too late.

Tormoehlen led the Braves' attack with 17 points and six rebounds. Wehmiller was close behind with 16 points and five rebounds, and Maria Allen added 12.

"I was really nervous but I just took a deep breath and I was ready for it," Allen said of coming into her first sectional game. "(Rieckers) told us that we need to show them that we can beat them by a bigger margin and show them what team we really are. We talked a lot better and we did a really good job of communicating."

Rieckers said, "I can't say enough about everybody. Katelyn (Shoemaker) got in foul trouble, Taylor (Fleetwood) came off the bench and did a nice job for her, and Maria came off the bench and did a nice job. That's what we have, we just have a solid group of girls. I was glad to see that we came back and started doing the things that we needed to do, and that's what good teams do. When you need a basket, you have players that step up and make those for your team."

For the Musketeers, Dalton led with 16 points and Mousty had 10.

BC (13-6) will travel back to Austin on Friday to play Clarksville (4-17), who defeated West Washington 66-47 in the first game on Wednesday. On Friday, Austin will go up against Paoli at 6 p.m., and the BC-Clarksville game will begin at 7:30 p.m. Eastern ended its season 14-7.

 

3 seniors combine for 27 points

BROWNSTOWN - Ashley Allen, Whitney Tormoehlen and Brittany Wehmiller made solid contributions on Senior Night Wednesday.

The Brownstown Central seniors stepped up and combined for 27 points, and the Lady Braves defeated Scottsburg 55-40 in a key Mid Southern Conference matchup. BC and North Harrison are now tied at the top of the MSC with a 6-1 record. Those two teams will meet on Saturday afternoon.

With winter weather causing games to be called off last week, BC hadn't played a game since Jan. 24, so play was a little slow-going in the opening quarter.

"We were a little rough at first, but we came into it and stepped up in the second half especially," Allen said after the game. "We were just getting ready to play as a team since we've had a week and a half off. We had to come out and see how each other was playing, and then we worked from there and started doing what we needed to do."

BC only made three field goals in the first quarter and Scottsburg made two, but the Braves were 7-for-8 from the free-throw line to lead 14-7 after one.

The Braves opened the second quarter on a 10-0 run, leaving the Warriorettes scoreless until 4:40 when Tia Deaton made 1 of 2 free throws. Tormoehlen and Jamie Wehmiller hit back-to-back 3-pointers as part of the Braves' run, and BC led 30-18 at the half. 

"I think whenever you have that week or more break there, it's hard to get back in that game mode," Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. "So coming out here and being Senior Night, we had a little bit of nerves and everybody was a little bit off. It seems like whenever we have a break, we struggle. Christmas break we did that, and now we did that. I was glad that we got to this point where we could play this game because we knew we would be a little rusty."

And with having several days away from practice, she said, "I think you could tell that stamina-wise that hurt us. (Scottsburg) was playing a 2-3 zone, which was a little different for us, and once we adjusted to the people that we needed to get open on that, I thought we settled down and did a better job."

The Warriorettes scored first in the third quarter, getting within 10, but the Braves answered with six straight points, capped off with Ashley Allen's put-back at 1:16 to make it 38-24.

The Braves led 40-26 after three, and Brittany Wehmiller was 1-for-2 from the free-throw line at 2:19 of the fourth to give BC its largest lead of the game, 50-32. They maintained the double-digit lead the rest of the way.

The Warriorettes tried to apply full-court pressure in the final period, but BC broke through it.

"Scottsburg is a physical team," Rieckers said. "They are going to come out and they are going to bump and they are going to go after the basketball, so we just needed to be strong with the ball, needed our ball handlers to step up. When they threw that on, we made a couple bad passes, couple turnovers, but we got into our press-break and calmed down and I thought we handled their press fine."

Tormoehlen finished with 16 points and five rebounds for the Lady Braves. Ashley Allen added 10 points and four rebounds.

"She stepped up and she's capable of scoring," Rieckers said of Allen, "and I think there's other times that some of our other players scored so she didn't really have to. She looks to pass before she looks to shoot, and tonight she took the opportunity to take some of those shots."

Before this season, Allen said, she was primarily a junior varsity player.

"I scored a lot in JV, but I scored around the same (as Wednesday), like nine to 10 (points)," she said.

For the Warriorettes, Deaton led with 16 points and eight rebounds.

Of the three seniors' contributions to Wednesday's game and the season thus far, Rieckers said, "Our seniors have just been valuable players through our program. I came in new last year and all three of them were willing to accept the changes that I made. They are players that pretty much have perfect attendance at weights, they come to the open gyms, they set a good example for the younger players with how hard they work and the things that we ask them to do day in and day out. They provide great leadership for our team."

BC (11-5) will travel to Paoli tonight for a non-conference game, and they will play host to North Harrison on Saturday.

 

 

BROWNSTOWN -  "Our two losses in the conference are by one point each," Brownstown coach Karla Rieckers said Saturday afternoon after her Lady Braves lost 44-43 to North Harrison in a Mid Southern Conference battle at home.

The Braves, who lost their first conference game of the season to Eastern 53-52, finished 6-2 in the MSC. The Corydon game will not be made up.

North Harrison won the MSC title with a record of 8-1 and they are 18-3 overall.

The Braves trailed 37-28 going into the final period and were down 41-28 with 6:30 remaining when they made their comeback. They didn't stop until they pulled even at 43-43 on a 3-point play by Sammie Bane with 53 seconds remaining.

Katelyn Shoemaker started the rally with a short jump shot, Taylor Fleetwood followed with a layup, Maria Allen added a basket and Shoemaker and Jamie Wehmiller hit free throws to pull the Braves even.

Harrison's Caitlyn Janes made one free throw with 6.7 seconds remaining for the winning point. Bane was called for a travel on BC's next possession before Shroyer missed a free throw with 1.1 seconds remaining. The Braves could not get off a shot in the final second.

Rieckers said the Braves were able to rally back because of hustle and having confidence in themselves.

Rieckers said her team hurt itself with poor shooting from the floor (14-for-42) and from the line (13 of 21). She said, "If you look at our free-throw shooters and field-goal shooters, we had people today that missed shots that they normally would make.

"Generally, we shoot 70-some percent from the line. Mentally, I thought we were just a little affected there, but they came back. They could have folded, but I was really proud of the way they made that stand."

At 7:42 of the fourth quarter, Harrison's Kacey Cox was called for a personal foul. Harrison coach Hal Pearson didn't like the call and let the officials know his feelings and was called for two technical fouls.

The Braves were unable to make any of the four free throws and then turned the ball over when play resumed. Cox scored on the Lady Cats' next possession to increase their lead to 39-28.

Both teams started out cold in the first period with the Braves shooting 2-for-8 and the Cats 4-for-14, resulting in a 9-5 lead for the visitors.

Cox topped the Cats in scoring with 15 points, all in the last three periods, and she affected Brownstown's defense with her quickness. "She is very quick, and we knew that going in," Rieckers said.

"I thought we made some unforced turnovers. Overall, I thought we were pretty good on defense. I was a little disappointed with our defensive rebounding. I thought we missed a couple of opportunities on some free throws when we should have gotten somebody blocked out, and we didn't do that.

"This was our third game in four days. We had a few ups and downs, but overall we really made a stand. It was a game we needed to help us get ready for the sectional next week."

Shoemaker topped the Braves in scoring with 13 points and Tormoehlen scored 12. Shoemaker topped BC in rebounds with nine.
The loss snapped a five-game win streak and left the Braves 12-6. They will play Eastern at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Austin sectional.

 

Brownstown improves to 10-5

NASHVILLE - The Brownstown Central Lady Braves scored the first six points of Saturday afternoon's basketball game at Brown County to lead all the way for a 69-43 win.

A basket by Katelyn Shoemaker, followed by two field goals by Whitney Tormoehlen, put the visitors up 6-0 two minutes into the game, and the Braves were in control.

Tormoehlen made her first three shots from the floor and all four of her free throws in the first period for 10 points to spark the Braves to an early 22-4 lead, much to the liking of coach Karla Rieckers.

"That (start) is something we've been talking about all along," Rieckers said. "It seems like in the past, we've had some pretty good third-quarter starts in the second half, but our first half in the past has been kind of sluggish. We've talked that we need to start strong right out of the gate, and I felt that we did that today. We've been working on different kinds of defense throughout, and we felt like we did a pretty good job in the first quarter."

Sammie Bane hit a 3-point shot two minutes into the second period for a 25-4 score, and the Braves were up 27-7 at the 5:10 mark before the Eagles finally came to life offensively. Jessica Harding made a pair of 3-point baskets, and three other Eagles also made 3s in the period as the team made 5 of 7 from long range and cut its deficit to 37-25 at the half.

Rieckers was not pleased with Brown County's numbers (21 points) in the second period. "For as hard as we worked in the first quarter, we let up in the second quarter, and we kind of got to standing around. They hit five 3s, and those are the kind of things you can't give up. No matter what the score is, you still have to get down and play defense and work hard the entire game."

The Braves took Rieckers' halftime pep talk to heart at the beginning of the third period and increased their lead to 47-26 on a 3-pointer by Bane at 3:40. Jamie Wehmiller scored back-to-back layups late in the period to put the Braves up 51-29, and the score stood at 53-34 entering the final period.

"We said coming out of the locker room the first three minutes of the third quarter were crucial, and we had to make a statement that we weren't going to let them back in the game and just try to take control from the very beginning," Rieckers said.

Tormoehlen had her season-high in points with 22, and Wehmiller missed tying her season-high by one point as she finished with 19. Both players were perfect at the free-throw line with Wehmiller 9-for-9 and Tormoehlen 8-for-8.

"They do a nice job of shooting free throws," Rieckers said. "Jamie, for the year, is 85 percent. Whitney can step up and hit the shots, too, and we need that kind of leadership from them out on the floor."

Rieckers said she liked the way her team dominated the rebounding 34-16 as Tormoehlen pulled down eight and Wehmiller had six. "Rebounding, for the most part, has been pretty strong all year. We've only had two games all season where the other team has outrebounded us."

The Braves had three offensive rebounds in the second quarter and forced the Eagles into 15 turnovers. "In practice we work on loose-ball drills, go after the basketball," Rieckers said. "We want to play that kind of aggressive style of ball. The more aggressive we can be, the more that seems to get our team going."

Box score

 

 

 VERSAILLES - Working well on transition and attacking the basket in the first half gave Brownstown Central a 24-13 halftime lead on Thursday.

Each team scored 10 in the third quarter and South Ripley outscored BC 18-17 in the final period, but the Lady Braves escaped with a 51-41 win on the road.

"In the second half, they came out with a 2-2-1 trap half-court and we weren't adjusting and we made some bad decisions of where to go with the ball," BC coach Karla Rieckers said.

Also, the Braves had a couple of players in foul trouble. Once they broke through the trap, Rieckers shifted players to some different positions.

"Once we started making the passes and getting in the gaps, we did a much better job of moving the ball," she said. "A lot of our points in the fourth quarter were from the free-throw line."

Whitney Tormoehlen had a game-high 17 points, and she pulled down nine rebounds for BC. Sammie Bane scored 13, and Jamie Wehmiller added 10 points and six rebounds.

Rieckers said a few players were battling sickness, but she hopes to have everyone ready to go when they are on the road again Saturday at Brown County. BC is 9-5.

PAOLI - Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers said Paoli played a physical game throughout and didn't give up.

But her players didn't give up either, despite Jamie Wehmiller and Sammie Bane fouling out of the game in the final minutes, and the Braves won 63-58.

"I was pleased with the way the girls stepped up and played through adversity," Rieckers said. "The three Allen sisters (Maria, Catherine and Ashley) stepped up and handled the ball. I was just pleased we survived the run."

That run, she said, came in the third quarter.

"There was a point we came out in the third quarter and went on a run, but (Paoli) didn't fold," she said. "They kept working at it. I told the girls this is a team you don't want to let hang around and we've got to put them away. (Paoli) had confidence and stayed close. We came back and scored and we did a nice job of making free throws in the fourth quarter."

Wehmiller finished the game with a double-double, scoring a game-high 20 points and pulling down 11 rebounds. Katelyn Shoemaker and Whitney Tormoehlen each contributed 11 points.

SHELBYVILLE - The Brownstown Central Lady Braves eventually found a way to hold back a scrappy Southwestern (Shelbyville) Spartans team on Tuesday night.

The Braves held a 17-point halftime lead and pushed the lead to as much as 22 points in the third quarter. The Spartans scrambled back to within 10, but the Braves fought back and returned home with a 70-50 win.

The road to victory, however, wasn't so smooth. While the Braves dominated rebounding 51-17, they were guilty of 22 turnovers in the game. The Spartans turned the ball over 19 times.

"We continue to work on our transition game, and we want to pass the ball forward and get the ball forward as much as we can and we weren't making some of the best decisions," Braves coach Karla Rieckers said of the first half, when her team had 13 turnovers. "People weren't filling the lanes where they needed to, and we talked about making that adjustment and just running the floor harder so we were able to convert on some of those baskets that we like to score."

The Braves led 16-9 after one quarter of play. Jamie Wehmiller's assist to Catherine Allen under the basket gave the Braves a 21-11 lead at 5:22 of the second quarter, and Allen's two free throws as 54 seconds gave BC the 31-17 advantage.

BC outscored Southwestern 21-11 in the second quarter to lead 37-20 at the break.

The Braves had a 21-point lead with Ashley Allen's bucket at 5:11 of the third quarter. The Spartans, however, decided to make a push and later went on an 8-0 run, led by Loren Smiley, who converted on a couple of Brownstown's midcourt turnovers and scored 10 points in the third. Her last field goal at 1:40 made it 50-37.

Of the third quarter, Rieckers said, "Two of our starters were on the bench with three fouls, and not having Taylor (Fleetwood, BC's center) tonight and not having her all week, we had some younger kids in there that got some varsity experience, which is good for them.
"But at the same time, that's a big adjustment for them to step up and have to learn and play at a higher level."

In the fourth, Smiley's two free throws at 6:39 made it a 52-42 ball game. But the Braves had an answer and got the lead back up to 20 and maintained the lead to the end.

"I told them that going in to the fourth quarter, we were playing almost sporadic," Rieckers said. "We were rushing things, and I said to just calm down, let's run our offense, let's try to pull them out of that zone and be patient with the ball because we didn't have to rush any shots. We could be patient on offense, wear them down on a half-court set and then go for an easy basket and I thought they did a nice job of that in the fourth quarter."

Katelyn Shoemaker maneuvered into the lane and scored 17 points, and she pulled down 10 rebounds for a double-double. Whitney Tormoehlen also had a double-double for the Braves, with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Wehmiller finished with nine points and had 11 rebounds, and Maria Allen came off the bench for nine points.

Of Shoemaker and Maria Allen, Rieckers said, "I think as our season progresses, our younger kids like that, Maria being a freshman and Katelyn being a sophomore, the more varsity experience they can get the more confidence they are going to get. We definitely need them at the end of the season to be able to step up so we can run our rotation and have everybody getting good minutes."

For the Spartans, Courtney Messer had 18 points, and Smiley contributed 13.

The Braves improved to 8-5, and they will travel to South Ripley on Thursday and Brown County on Saturday.

 
At Shelbyville

Brownstown 16 21 13 20-70
Southwestern 9 11 18 12-50

Brownstown (8-5): J. Wehmiller 3-6 2-2 9, A. Allen 1-3 0-0 2, Bane 4-15 2-2 11, Shoemaker 8-18 1-5 17, Tormoehlen 6-16 2-4 14, M. Allen 3-8 3-4 9, C. Allen 1-3 2-2 4, B. Wehmiller 1-4 0-0 2, Mellencamp 1-2 0-1 2, J. Hackman 0-0 0-0 0, Brown 0-0 0-0 0, totals 28-75 12-20 70.
Southwestern (7-5): Messer 7-18 1-5 18, McArthy 1-10 2-3 4, Carroll 0-6 3-4 3, Bowers 0-1 0-0 0, Whitney Thomas 1-2 4-8 6, Griffey 0-2 0-0 0, Drake 2-8 0-0 6, Smiley 5-8 3-4 13, Smith 0-1 0-0 0, Whitley Thomas 0-0 0-2 0, totals 16-56 13-26 50.
3-point goals: BC 2-7 (J. Wehmiller 1-2, Bane 1-4, M. Allen 0-1), S 5-17 (Messer 3-7, Drake 2-4, McArthy 0-2, Smith 0-1, Smiley 0-1, Carroll 0-1, Bowers 0-1); Rebounds: BC 51 (J. Wehmiller 11, Tormoehlen 11, Shoemaker 10, Bane 8), S 17 (Whitney Thomas 5); Turnovers: BC 22, S 19; Fouls: BC 22, S 20.

Brownstown’s winning streak ends at six

By DENNIS DUNN (The Tribune)

BROWNSTOWN - Brownstown Central and Jennings County's girls basketball teams began the season 1-4. However, both teams have been on a hot streak as of late.

The Lady Braves won six in a row and six of their last eight, while the Lady Panthers won five of their last eight games. On Saturday afternoon, the Lady Panthers came off of a nine-day layoff and the Lady Braves off of a seven-day break.

Both teams showed a little rust early in the game, but in the end, it was the Lady Panthers who came out on top 57-56.

"We knew coming in here that it was going to be a battle," Lady Panthers coach Jason Longmeier said. "Karla always has her kids ready to go, and to their credit, they were well prepared and they did a nice job taking away what we wanted to do. They took Shey Richardson out of the game today, but other players stepped up."

The Lady Panthers led 48-44 in the fourth quarter until Jamie Wehmiller and Katelyn Shoemaker hit back-to-back baskets for the Lady Braves to tie the game at 48-all at 3:30. the Lady Panthers went back up four points on two straight baskets.

With the score 55-51, Shoemaker converted a three-point play to cut Jennings County's lead to one. Tori Magner hit a free throw for the Lady Panthers with 31.3 seconds, and with 15 seconds left, Shoemaker found an open space in the lane and tied the score at 56-all.

After the Lady Panthers got the ball inbounds, the Braves were whistled for a foul, and Katelyn Capes hit one free throw for the one-point lead. With four ticks left on the clock, BC had a chance to win the game, but the inbound pass was stolen by Capes.

"I was disappointed the most with our first two games back from Christmas with our intensity level," Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. "The two games before the break I thought we played pretty well. With two and a half weeks off, you kind of lose that intensity when all you do is beat up on your own teammates.

"We had younger kids stepping up today and that's a positive for us. I know the Jennings County coach made a comment about us being really young. When the game ended, we had one senior on the floor."

Four Lady Braves scored in the first quarter, and Brownstown took an 11-9 lead after one. The Braves were 5 of 12 shooting in the first quarter and Jennings County was 4 of 15. In the second quarter, the Braves led by five points when Sammie Bane drained two 3-pointers. Jennings County quickly tied the score at 17-all. Bane put BC up 21-19, but the Panthers used a 4-0 run to go ahead 23-21.

Whitney Tormoehlen scored two free throws for BC's 27-25 lead, but JC scored the final four points of the second quarter to take the 29-27 halftime lead. The Lady Braves outscored the Lady Panthers 15-10 in the third quarter and led 42-39 after three.

Shoemaker came off the bench for the Lady Braves and scored 10 points and had six rebounds. Maria Allen also came off the bench, and she scored nine points. The Lady Braves won the rebounding battle 30-28 and Tormoehlen collected 10.

"I thought Katelyn did a very good job of finding players in the inside," Rieckers said. "For Katelyn, it's a lot of confidence and I thought she played an exceptional game today."

Magner led JC with 14 points and five rebounds.

"We have been in situations this year where it came down to a last-second shot and I told the girls they are not going to get the last shot to fall every time," Rieckers said. "We kind of had a miscommunication at the end and that comes down to experience. I can't say enough about their effort. They come in day after day and work hard, and I am real proud of them. To get better, you have to play better teams. They (JC) have some quality players on their team and that's only going to help us."

Longmeier said, "At this point of the season, a win is a win. This would have been a tough one for us to swallow, so coming in here and winning is good. They (BC) have beaten some pretty good teams this year and they beat decent teams by a big margin. We knew it was going to be a battle, so walking away with the win is fine."

The Lady Braves (7-5) will begin a three-game road stretch on Tuesday night when they go to Southwestern (Shelbyville).


Jennings County 9 20 10 18 - 57
Brownstown Central 11 16 15 14 - 56

Jennings Co. (7-8): Capes 4-6 0-0 8, Royse 4-4 1-2 9, Magner 4-9 6-10 14, Jackson 2-6 3-4 7, Richardson 4-11 2-4 10, Kage 0-3 0-0 0, Hurtle 1-5 0-0 3, Elmore 0-1 0-0 0, Barlow 2-4 1-2 5, totals 21-50 13-22 57.

Brownstown (7-5): Tormoehlen 2-6 3-6 7, Fleetwood 1-3 1-3 3, A. Allen 3-4 1-6 7, J. Wehmiller 4-8 0-0 8, Bane 3-11 0-0 8, M. Allen 4-6 1-1 9, C. Allen 2-5 0-0 4, Shoemaker 4-10 2-3 10, totals 23-53 8-19 56.

3-point goals: JC 1-13 (Capes 0-1, Jackson 0-1, Richardson 0-4, Kage 0-2, Hurtle 1-5), BC 2-9 (J. Wehmiller 0-3, Bane 2-6); Rebounds: JC 28 (Magner 5, Jackson 4), BC 30 (Tormoehlen 10, Shoemaker 6); Turnovers: JC 12, BC 15; Fouls: JC 17, BC 19.

Junior varsity

Jennings Co. 9 9 8 10 - 36
Brownstown 7 11 14 13 - 45

Brownstown (8-4): H. Hackman 14, Brown 11, Settle 10, J. Hackman 5, Mellencamp 4, Quade 1.

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Brownstown girls forge win


By ZACH SPICER (The Tribune)

CHARLESTOWN - Nine seconds remain in the game and it's tied at 36-all.

Brownstown Central's Sammie Bane has to go full-court with the basketball. She looks for an open teammate in the middle of the court but sees no one. What she does see, however, is space, so she picks up the pace, drives in the lane, dishes the ball through the hoop and the buzzer sounds. BC scrapes by Charlestown 38-36.

"We were supposed to set a pick across and I was supposed to go down and look for somebody cutting through the middle and just go to the basket," Bane said after Saturday afternoon's Mid Southern Conference win. "Nobody was on me so I just took it."

Braves coach Karla Rieckers said, "I really thought (Pirates coach Tony Hall) would bring more pressure up, so we brought all four of our girls up. I'm pretty confident most of our girls can put the ball on the floor and take it to the basket. We got it in our point guard's hand, and we just needed to drive and attack the basket and try to get a shot. We like to put the ball in Sam's hand like that."

The rest of the game was a physical battle. The Braves' Jamie Wehmiller hit the first basket of the game, but from then until halftime, the Pirates maintained the lead. BC shot 5-for-19 from the floor and was outrebounded 14-5 in the first half, and Charlestown used 8-0 runs in the first and second quarters to lead 21-12 at the break.

"It was kind of like we had those good shots again that just weren't going in," Rieckers said. "When we don't get baskets to fall, we start getting uptight, we start panicking a little bit, instead of attacking the basket the way we want to.

"I was disappointed in the defensive effort in the first half. I stressed to the girls at halftime that this year we've outrebounded every team that we've played. I said we just need to make sure you get a body on somebody...and get back to playing our kind of basketball."

Bane said, "I think we all still had a little nerves. We showed it on Tuesday (at South Decatur). In the second half, we knew we had to come out strong. (Rieckers) even said we were playing uptight and kept thinking about our mistakes that we were making. She told us to just relax and take two deep breaths."

"When somebody plays zone, we kind of start to stand around a little bit instead of making good quick passes, reversing the ball and attacking the gaps on the zone," Rieckers said. "I knew once we would get the lead, if we could pull it out and make (the Pirates) come out of that zone, we seem to do better when teams play us man-to-man."

The Pirates pulled to within two points twice in the fourth quarter. Amanda Miller's jumper from the free throw line tied the game at 36. But after a timeout, Bane made her way down the court for the lay-in.

Bane had a game-high 12 points, and Wehmiller finished with 11.


At Charlestown

Brownstown 7 5 17 9-38
Charlestown 12 9 3 12-36

Brownstown Central (7-4, 5-1): J. Wehmiller 5-8 0-0 11, A. Allen 0-0 1-2 1, Bane 4-9 4-4 12, Tormoehlen 1-9 3-4 5, Fleetwood 0-5 0-2 0, M. Allen 1-4 1-2 3, C. Allen 2-2 0-0 4, Shoemaker 1-2 0-0 2, B. Wehmiller 0-0 0-0 0, totals 14-39 9-14 38.

Charlestown (5-8, 2-3): Allen 1-4 0-0 3, Miller 2-6 7-9 11, Zollman 1-6 1-2 4, Bennison 2-5 0-0 4, Rhoten 2-3 1-1 5, Sherrill 3-6 0-0 9, Johns 0-2 0-0 0, Trotter 0-0 0-0 0, Williams 0-0 0-0 0, totals 11-32 9-12 36.

3-point goals: BC 1-2 (J. Wehmiller 1-1, Bane 0-1), C 5-12 (Sherrill 3-5, Allen 1-3, Zollman 1-2, Miller 0-2); Rebounds: BC 15 (J. Wehmiller 4, Tormoehlen 4), C 18 (Zollman 7, Williams 4); Turnovers: BC 15, C 23; Fouls: BC 17, C 16.

Junior varsity

Brownstown 6 4 6 5-21
Charlestown 7 0 11 5-23

Brownstown (7-4): Brown 8, Cockerham 6, Mellencamp 3, J. Hackman 2, Settle 2.

Next for BC (7-4, 5-1) is a non-conference home game on Thursday against Hauser.

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(Update) Injured Cougar player able to return to school (see below)

WESTPORT - Brownstown Central coach Karla Rieckers said her team came out a little rough after a two-week break, but they still managed to pull out the win at South Decatur 51-43.

"In the first half, we came out and we missed some easy shots," Rieckers said. "We were a little bit rusty, and we got a little nervous. We were taking some good shots on the inside but just weren't finishing. We talked about that at halftime and said we just need to calm down and play our kind of game."

Her team responded in the third quarter and scored 18 points to the Cougars' 10. In the final period, BC didn't hit a field goal, but made 15 free throws to seal the win.

"It was a pretty physical game in the fourth quarter," she said. "In a ball game, when it's close, we need to step up and make (free throws) and we did."

Whitney Tormoehlen scored 11 for the Braves and Jamie Wehmiller had 10 points and seven rebounds.

The Braves (6-4) will travel to Charlestown on Saturday afternoon for a Mid Southern Conference game.


Brownstown 9 9 18 15-51
S. Decatur 11 8 10 14-43

Brownstown (6-4): M. Allen 1 1-2 3, J. Wehmiller 1 8-9 10, A. Allen 2 1-4 5, Bane 2 4-4 8, C. Allen 1 0-0 2, Shoemaker 2 1-2 5, B. Wehmiller 0 1-2 1, Tormoehlen 3 5-6 11, Fleetwood 2 2-4 6, totals 14 23-33 51.

South Decatur (3-8): Owens 1 2-2 5, Kirchner 1 0-0 2, Cunningham 5 2-2 12, Lewellyn 1 1-4 3, Mauer 3 3-4 9, Palmer 5 0-0 12, totals 16 8-12 43.

3-point goals: BC 0, SD 3 (Palmer 2, Owens); Rebounds: BC 32 (Wehmiller 7, Ashley Allen 5, Shoemaker 5), SD 19 (Mauer 8); Turnovers: BC 15; Fouls: BC 15, SD 24

Junior varsity

Brownstown 9 11 14 4-38
S. Decatur 3 7 6 7-23

Brownstown (7-3): Cockerham 5, H. Hackman 4, J. Hackman 2, Quade 10, Settle 2, Mellencamp 9, Brown 6.


Palmer Able to Return to School

Gary Dudgeon
Greensburg Daily News

After a scary half-hour plus Thursday, Briana Palmer was able to return to school the next day. As she lay on the floor being tended to by trainer Sara Rohls and members of the coaching staff at South Decatur, that result would seem to have been problematic.

“She’s sore and will be for a while, but she’s in school,” reported Athletic Director Jim Jameson.

A collision with Brownstown Central’s Whitney Tormoehlen caused Palmer to strike the floor with 2:09 to go in Thursday’s game. Initially, she was unable to move. When it became apparent that she needed assistance, junior varsity coach Amanda Pfaff, Rohls, boys’ freshmen coach Tim Mauer and varsity assistant Doug Einhaus came to her aid.

After some time had expired, Rohls informed Jameson that it would be best if she were seen by medical personnel.

“She’s the expert,” Jameson said. “When she says call them (emergency medical personnel), I call them.”

He was also in high praise of those who assisted the fallen Cougar.

“I want to thank Rohls, Mauer and everyone who came to her aid and also the Westport and Letts emergency medical people,” he said.

All of their work led to a good result as Palmer was cleared by Decatur County Memorial Hospital staff after tests were conducted to rule out any serious injury. She was released and was able to return to school Friday.

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Win moves team to 4-1 in conference play


By ZACH SPICER(The Tribune)

SELLERSBURG - Two 9-0 runs in the first quarter and a 16-0 run in the second by the Brownstown Central Lady Braves was too much for the Silver Creek Dragons to handle Thursday night.

The 73-47 victory over the Dragons was BC's fourth straight Mid Southern Conference win of the season.
It was also another game that the Braves had a rebounding advantage. In this one, it was 39-23.

"That's something that we work on in practice on a regular basis," Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. "We want all of our people to block out, because our tallest player is 5-10, and so when we run up against people that are 5-11 and people that are 6-foot throughout the season, we have to be able to get in position and block people out."

At 5-5, BC's Sammie Bane picked up the most rebounds (eight) of anyone from both teams Thursday.

In the first quarter, Jamie Wehmiller was 3-for-3 for BC to help kick off the first run. Alexis Shaver's basket at 3:44 put Silver Creek on the board, but BC had four players score on the second run and had the 25-5 advantage after one.

After baskets from each team, BC scored 16 unanswered points. Wehmiller and Taylor Fleetwood each had six, and Bane and Ashley Allen each put up two field goals, and the Braves led 47-15 at the break.

In the first half, BC shot 18-for-34 from the field, compared to Silver Creek's 6-for-31. The Dragons had twice as many turnovers (12) as the Braves in the first half.

"In the first half, with our transition game, I felt we were playing very well," Rieckers said. "I told them to push the ball, and the kind of baskets that we wanted to score were the transition baskets. In the first half, wow, probably all of our shots were right there in the paint, right under the basket, the kind of shots that we want our girls to be taking."

The Braves got a little lax in the third and had seven turnovers. Silver Creek's Molly Voyles put up five of her 12 points in the game and Mandi Martin scored five, but the Braves still outscored the Dragons 13-12.

Wehmiller had six more points in the final quarter, and her 3-pointer at 3:58 made the score 71-36. The Dragons had a 7-0 run at the end, but it was too late for a comeback.

"Starting with the last minute of (the first) half and into the second half, we kind of got way from (the transition game)," Rieckers said. "I know it's hard to keep your intensity when you're up like that, but we still keep talking about playing a complete game, and we want to continue that throughout."

"When you have the kind of lead that you do, your players kind of start to stand around and maybe don't work hard and sprint after everything that they should. So those are the things that we still need to work on. But I told them that the effort they have given in the last couple of games, they completely turned it around, and I couldn't be more proud of that."

Wehmiller led all scorers in the game with 20. Fleetwood and Ashley Allen each had eight, and Tormoehlen, Catherine Allen and Maria Allen had seven.

Martin had 13 points and seven rebounds for the Dragons, and Voyles contributed 12 points.

The Braves moved to 5-4 on the season, and 4-1 in the MSC. The Dragons are 2-8, 1-4.

This was BC's last game of 2008, and they will play at South Decatur on Jan. 8. Two nights after that, they will play at Charlestown in an MSC game.

"Conference is something that we definitely focus on," Rieckers said. "That Eastern game, we lost it by one point in the conference, and that's something that is really going to hopefully not come back to haunt us later. Since that time, we've stepped up in all of our conference games. Last year, we finished third in the conference, and we wanted to improve on that this year. That's something we're working toward every time we play a conference game. Now we've got a couple weeks here at Christmas we need to work."


At Sellersburg

Brownstown 25 22 13 13-73
Silver Creek 5 10 12 10-47

Brownstown (5-4, 4-1): M. Allen 2-9 3-5 7, J. Wehmiller 8-10 3-4 20, A. Allen 4-4 0-0 8, Bane 2-6 2-2 6, C. Allen 1-9 5-6 7, Shoemaker 2-7 2-2 6, B. Wehmiller 2-3 0-0 4, Tormoehlen 2-5 3-4 7, Fleetwood 4-7 0-0 8, totals 27-60 18-23 73.

Silver Creek (2-8, 1-4): Richmer 2-8 2-4 6, Hagedorn 0-2 0-0 0, Roberts 1-2 0-0 2, Jamros 3-11 0-1 6, Voyles 4-10 4-6 12, Johnston 1-8 0-0 2, Martin 5-13 2-2 13, Fluhr 1-2 0-0 2, Rogers 0-4 0-0 0, Shaver 2-8 0-0 4, totals 19-68 8-13 47.

3-point goals: BC 1-2 (J. Wehmiller), SC 1-9 (Martin)
Rebounds: BC 39 (Bane 8, Shoemaker 7, C. Allen 6), SC 23 (Martin 7, Shaver 6)

Turnovers: BC 16, SC 15
Fouls: BC 16 (fouled out: Tormoehlen), SC 14

Junior varsity

Brownstown 7 10 7 10-34
Silver Creek 6 2 0 11-19

Brownstown (6-3): A. Hackman 2, Cockerham 6, H. Hackman 5, J. Hackman 1, Quade 2, Settle 8, Mellencamp 6, Brown 4.

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By ZACH SPICER (The Tribune)

CLARKSVILLE - The Brownstown Central Lady Braves basketball team is on a roll.

BC has won three straight Mid Southern Conference games in the past six days. The Lady Braves picked up the third win at Clarksville on Tuesday night with a score of 83-41. BC's only MSC loss was by one point to Eastern on Dec. 6.

While both teams opened up the game with full-court pressure, the Lady Braves finally found a way to break through that, and later in the game, found a way to create turnovers and convert.

"We were more patient with the ball," Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers said of how her team broke through the press. "We worked the ball, looked for the open man, tried to push the ball up the floor on them. We tried to dribble through. It's not very good to dribble through a press. We need to pass. When we got back to that, we were able to break the press much more effectively."

The Lady Generals had a 7-4 lead after a 3-pointer by Candice James, but the Lady Braves went on a 12-0 run. After one, BC led 16-8.

Clarksville got within five midway through the second, but Whitney Tormoehlen arrived for the Braves and scored seven of her 13 points on the night in the quarter. Five other Braves scored in the second, and BC had the 37-21 advantage at the half.

"I think that's one of the things that is a benefit of our team. We have a lot of players that can score and step up, and that's one of the things we like to see because when you have everybody that is a scoring threat, you're hard to stop," Rieckers said.

The teams were about even in the third quarter. BC had four field goals, and Clarksville had five, but the Lady Braves won the quarter 14-13.

Finally, in the fourth quarter, it was all Brownstown. Bronte Miley made a trey early in the quarter for the Generals, but the only other scoring was four free throws as the Lady Braves outscored them 32-7.

With a little bit of a shaky start, the Lady Braves put it all on the court from the second quarter on, but Rieckers wants it from the start.

"I don't think we played with the intensity we have the last two games," she said. "But we played a lot of games in a short amount of time. We just want to try to build on that, and I would like to see us play with a little more intensity.

"We talked about how we were prepared when we played Salem and Austin, and then approach that the same way. No matter who steps on the court against you, you have to be able to come with intensity and confidence and be ready to play every game."

Five Lady Braves were in double figures in the game. Sammie Bane led all scorers with 15 points, and she had seven rebounds. Tormoehlen, Taylor Fleetwood and Jamie Wehmiller all had 13. Maria Allen contributed 11 points.

Wehmiller also had 10 rebounds, Tormoehlen had nine and Fleetwood had seven. BC easily controlled the boards with a 46-11 advantage, and had 19 turnovers compared to Clarksville's 30.

Leading the Lady Generals were Kaitie Price with 13 points and Candice James with 10.

BC (4-4, 3-1) will have another MSC game Thursday night at Silver Creek (2-7, 1-3) in their last game before Christmas break.

"We talked to them about finishing strong going into the Christmas break," Rieckers said. "We just keep trying to instill those things in the players to play hard, play our game that we want to play. We try to set some team goals that we try to reach every game."

At Clarksville

Brownstown 16 21 14 32-83
Clarksville 8 13 13 7-41

Brownstown (4-4, 3-1): M. Allen 3-9 5-8 11, J. Wehmiller 4-13 5-6 13, A. Allen 1-1 0-2 2, Bane 7-10 0-1 15, C. Allen 3-9 3-4 9, Shoemaker 2-5 1-2 5, B. Wehmiller 1-2 0-0 2, Tormoehlen 5-14 3-5 13, Fleetwood 6-8 1-2 13, totals 32-71 18-30 83.

Clarksville (3-4, 0-2): Mulford 0-3 0-0 0, Miley 2-4 0-0 5, Parrish 1-3 0-0 2, James 2-7 4-8 10, Bisinger 2-10 2-2 6, Druin 1-2 0-0 2, Price 4-11 5-7 13, Jurek 0-0 0-0 0, Evans 1-5 1-2 3, Hall 0-5 0-1 0, totals 13-50 12-20 41.

3-point goals: BC 1-5 (Bane), C 3-10 (James 2, Miley)
Rebounds: BC 46 (J. Wehmiller 10, Tormoehlen 9, Fleetwood 7, Bane 7, Shoemaker 7), C 11 (James 3, Evans 3); Turnovers: BC 19, C 30; Fouls: BC 19 (fouled out: Shoemaker), C 25 (fouled out: Bisinger)

Junior varsity

Brownstown 9 20 15 15-59
Clarksville 2 7 0 2-11

Brownstown (5-3): A. Hackman 6, Cockerham 3, H. Hackman 4, J. Hackman 10, Quade 11, Settle 12, Mellencamp 4, Brown 9.

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Lady Braves' inside game too much for Austin
By ZACH SPICER (The Tribune)

BROWNSTOWN - The Brownstown Central Lady Braves could have given up when Austin opened a 17-9 lead after the first quarter of Saturday night's Mid Southern Conference matchup.

But they didn't.

They produced 20 points in the second quarter, and led at halftime 29-26 and 42-41 after three periods. The way the Lady Braves played in the final minute and a half, however, carried them on to a 61-60 win over the Class 2A No. 3 Eagles.

Sammie Bane's jump-hook at 1:15 in the fourth quarter had the Lady Braves up 58-55. Katy McIntosh's two free throws brought Austin to within one, but she received her fifth foul at 1:03, sending BC's Whitney Tormoehlen to the line.

With the game on the line, Tormoehlen made both.

Austin couldn't get a 3-pointer to drop, BC had the ball back and Tormoehlen was fouled with 10 seconds remaining, this time making 1 of 2. The Lady Eagles' Kelly Hollan raced down the floor and launched a 3 from the top right. It went in, but the Eagles were one point short.

BC coach Karla Rieckers said good post play, teamwork and confidence combined to give the Lady Braves a big win.

"We kept talking about having confidence in our shots, because the shots that we were taking in the first quarter were very good shots, shots that we wanted to take inside the lane, from the box," she said. "Those are shots we will normally step up and make. You have to believe that your shots are going to go in, keep taking it inside, don't be afraid to take it in there, because we really felt like that would play to our benefit."

Sure enough, it did.The Lady Braves were 2-for-9 from 3-point land in the game, so with BC's post players (Tormoehlen, Taylor Fleetwood and Katelyn Shoemaker) and other players getting in the lane, it proved to be the difference in the game.

"Based on our game with Salem (Thursday), most of our shots were inside the lane," Rieckers said. "We had some size inside with Taylor and Katelyn and Whitney, and when they get around the inside of the basket, good things are going to happen. We're continuing to work on our outside shots, but we thought if we were patient, it was going to force (Austin) to have to play defense. We thought if we took our time, that the inside would eventually open up and that's what we wanted to do."

Fleetwood led the Lady Braves with 13 points, and she had 9 rebounds. Tormoehlen had 12 points and Wehmiller had 11, and both had 11 rebounds.

Fleetwood said, "I know that I need to get in front of the person (in the post), and so when I come out in the second half, I have to try harder and work a lot harder and I know what I need to do if I make my mistakes in the first half."

BC, 3-4 overall and 2-1 in the MSC, has two conference games this week, Tuesday at Clarksville and Thursday at Silver Creek.

"Every night, we have to be ready to step up and come on the floor with the kind of intensity we have had the last two games, because it's certainly a big turnaround from the two games (against Salem and Austin) compared to how we were at the beginning of the season," Rieckers said.


Austin... 17 9 15 19-60
Brownstown 9 20 13 19-61

Brownstown (3-4, 2-1): M. Allen 4-7 0-1 9, J. Wehmiller 4-21 2-2 11, A. Allen 0-3 0-0 0, Bane 2-6 0-2 4, C. Allen 2-6 2-3 6, Shoemaker 2-5 2-4 6, B. Wehmiller 0-0 0-0 0, Tormoehlen 4-12 4-6 12, Fleetwood 5-14 3-6 13, totals 23-74 13-24 61

Austin (5-2, 2-2): Hollan 1-3 2-2 5, Jones 4-11 1-2 13, McIntosh 2-10 12-14 16, Hickman 0-0 0-0 0, Gray 2-6 0-0 4, Goodin 5-17 2-4 14, Dowling 1-7 2-4 4, Coomer 2-2 0-0 4, Morris 0-2 0-0 0, totals 17-58 19-26 60

3-point goals: BC 2-9 (M. Allen, J. Wehmiller), A 7-16 (Jones 4, Goodin 2, Hollan); rebounds: BC 40 (Tormoehlen 11, J. Wehmiller 11, Fleetwood 9), A 25 (Gray 7, Goodin 6, McIntosh 6); turnovers: BC 13, A 14; fouls: BC 18, A 23; fouled out: McIntosh)

Junior varsity

Austin 8 6 8 18-40
Brownstown 8 15 6 14-43

Brownstown (4-3): A. Hackman 8, H. Hackman 3, J. Hackman 8, Quade 2, Settle 2, Mellencamp 7, Brown 13

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4 BC players in double figures
By ZACH SPICER (The Tribune)

BROWNSTOWN - Confidence is what the players and coach Karla Rieckers said won the game for Brownstown Central Thursday night against Salem.

That wasn't the only thing on the Lady Braves' side Thursday.

The aggressive effort was there from beginning to end in an 80-42 rout of the Lady Lions in a Mid Southern Conference game.

BC's statistics on the night were the best they've been all season. The Lady Braves shot 33-for-58 from the floor and 12-for-12 from the free throw line. They outrebounded the Lions 30-18, stole the ball 11 times to the Lions' 4 and they had the least amount of turnovers (14) in a game this season. Plus, four players scored in double figures, and the team scored 16 or more points each quarter.

"I think confidence was a big factor," Rieckers said after the game.

At practice on Wednesday night, she said, "We had a heart-to-heart at practice. I think a lot of our players, their confidence was hurt with the teams that we had played," losing to Class 3A Mitchell, Seymour and Columbus East in 4A and losing to 2A Eastern by one point.

"I kept telling them all along that (Salem) is the team I knew we could beat, and they needed to find it within themselves to come out on the floor and do that," she said. "We talked a lot about confidence and a lot about teamwork and supporting each other, because before, we just weren't talking to each other, we weren't communicating. Everybody was scared. Tonight, everybody came out prepared to play and ready to play, and that made a big difference."

That certainly showed in the first quarter. The Lady Braves had seven steals, made several shots in the lane, played solid defense and forced the Lions to 10 turnovers, leading to a 26-8 advantage after one.

Five Lady Braves scored in the first quarter, with Whitney Tormoehlen scoring 10 of her 19 points on the night, and Sammie Bane putting up 6 of her 14 points.

The Lions, meanwhile, shot 6-for-26 in the first half, compared to the Lady Braves' 19-for-30. Megan Smith tried to boost the Lions with two 3-pointers in the second quarter, and Jordyn Wroblewski contributed five points in the first half, but the Lady Braves led 43-17 at halftime.

"One of the things we talked about at halftime was we didn't want to be satisfied with the first half," Rieckers said. "A lot of times, our first half hasn't been very strong, but then our second half, we always competed with all the teams," according to points put up in the final two quarters in previous games, she said.

The second half wasn't much better for the Lions. Wroblewksi had six more points to complete her scoring for the night, but her last one at 2:29 in the second half left her team down 56-26, the Braves' biggest lead of the night.

Wehmiller hit a 3 and two more field goals in the third quarter, Bane had six points and Tormoehlen, Ashley Allen, Catherine Allen and Katelyn Shoemaker contributed two each to lead 64-26 after three.

Shoemaker contributed big in the second half with four points and four rebounds, and in the fourth quarter, Wehmiller had six more and Maria Allen hit a couple of field goals.

After shooting 1-for-8 from the field in the first half, Salem's Barbi Richardson got in the lane, drew fouls and scored 14 of her 16 points in the second half, but it just too late for the Lions.

"We really worked a lot in practice about being more patient with the ball," Rieckers said. "We had been settling for passing the ball two times, taking a shot, passing the ball three times, taking a shot. We said we really need to make the other team work and have to play defense. I thought with being more patient, we had better shot selection tonight with our players.

"That's one area where our field goal percentage has been down, and you just have to believe in yourself. So we want to take what we did tonight knowing that we can do that and build to the next game and come out and try to do the same things we did tonight."

Wehmiller and Tormoehlen each finished with 19 points, Bane had 14 and Shoemaker had 12 for the Braves.

Leading the way for the Lady Lions was Richardson with 16 and Wroblewski with 11.

After the game, Wehmiller and Tormoehlen talked about how Thursday's game compared to the Braves' first five games.

"We were just ready to go this time, and we weren't going to have a slow start again," Wehmiller said, as the team had let opponents go on runs four times this season. "We were just pumped up for this game. We just went out with a positive attitude at the beginning knowing we could do it.

"We just had a lot of different meetings about being confident in ourselves and being confident in our teammates and trusting in everybody. It really helped. It definitely shows that we can go a long way this season, and that's what we expected. It's just a good confidence builder tonight."

Tormoehlen said, "We just knew that we had to come out strong, and we just got really fired up in the locker room. At practice, we just kept telling ourselves, ‘we're good,' we started talking and kept encouraging each other and really pushed ourselves. We just knew we had to all be ready to play because (Salem) could come and give us a run for our money.

"We were more confident in ourselves, and if somebody missed a shot, we just kept telling each other that we're good and it's OK.

A lot of it is mental, and I think we need to just keep telling ourselves that we're good and push each other in practice."

The Lady Braves are back in MSC action Saturday night, hosting 5-1 Austin, which suffered its first loss Tuesday at Corydon. BC is 1-1 in the MSC and Austin is 2-1.

"Austin is definitely a quality team, and we're going to have to be ready to go," Rieckers said. "I think if we come out the way we did tonight that we'll be able to hopefully give them a competitive game."

Rieckers hopes Thursday's win is a turning point for the team to go in the right direction.

"It was a challenge to them to keep that intensity, not let up, to play a complete game, because we had been looking for a complete game since the beginning of the season and we hadn't had one," she said. "Tonight, that's about as complete a game as I think we can get from everybody.

"I told them that we as a coaching staff saw that team this summer, where we had lots of people scoring, it was balanced scoring, we played with intensity. One of the girls made the comment (Thursday) that this is fun. And I said ‘Yeah, when you play and you do the things the way you're supposed to be, that's why you play, and good things will follow.'"


At Brownstown

Salem. . . 8 9 9 16-42
Brownstown 26 17 21 16-80

Brownstown (2-4): M. Allen 2-5 0-0 4, J. Wehmiller 6-10 6-6 19, A. Allen 3-4 0-0 6, Bane 6-10 2-2 14, C. Allen 2-3 0-0 4, Shoemaker 6-7 0-0 12, B. Wehmiller 0-2 0-0 0, Tormoehlen 8-13 2-2 19, Mellencamp 0-1 0-0 0, Fleetwood 0-3 2-2 2, totals 33-58 12-12 80.

Salem (5-4): Malloy 1-5 0-0 3, Newkirk 0-2 0-0 0, Wroblewski 3-12 5-7 11, Thomas 0-3 0-1 0, Stephenson 0-0 0-0 0, Smith 2-8 0-0 6, Banks 2-5 0-0 4, Richardson 6-20 4-9 16, Taylor 1-3 0-0 2, totals 15-58 9-17 42.
3-point goals: BC 2-3 (J. Wehmiller, Tormoehlen), S 3-12 (Smith 2, Malloy 1)

Rebounds: BC 30 (Shoemaker 7, J. Wehmiller 6, Tormoehlen 6), S 18 (Richardson 8, Thomas 3, Taylor 3)
Steals: BC 11 (Bane 3, Tormoehlen 3, J. Wehmiller 2), S 4 (Thomas 3, Wroblewski 1)
Turnovers: BC 14, S 21
Fouls: BC 21 (fouled out: Fleetwood), S 12

Junior varsity

Salem . . .9 9 3 12-33
Brownstown 0 7 12 8-27

Brownstown (3-3): A. Hackman 5, Cockerham 4, J. Hackman 12, Mellencamp 4, Brown 2.

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Bluejackets win 58-47 on the road

By DENNIS DUNN (The Tribune)

BROWNSTOWN - For the fourth time this season, the Brownstown Central girls basketball team has let its opponent run out to a good lead. This time, the Mitchell Bluejackets jumped out to a 9-0 advantage and cruised to a 58-47 win Tuesday night in Brownstown.

In the first two minutes of the game, it was the Bluejackets' (5-2) frontcourt players of Ariel Cockerham and Natalie Morse who got everything going. Cockerham scored the first four points and Morse scored the next five points to force the Braves into a timeout.

At the 5:55 mark, Taylor Fleetwood got the Braves on the board with her first basket. Whitney Tormoehlen had the next Braves basket at 3:30, and Maria Allen scored the Braves' sixth and final points of the first quarter as the Bluejackets led 22-6.

The Bluejackets used an 11-0 spurt in the first quarter to turn a seven-point game into an 18-point lead.

"We just can't get down like that," Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. "We can't play from nine points down, and that just seems to be a problem for us. We have to be ready to go and be able to give an effort from the start.

"We were getting outhustled down the floor and they have to step up. It's consistent and we just have to find a way to step it up from the beginning of the game."

In the second quarter, the Braves cut the Bluejackets' lead down to 26-17 when Katelyn Shoemaker had a put-back off of a rebound with 4:08 left in the first half. The Bluejackets then used a 12-4 run to close out the half and went into the locker room with a 38-21 lead.

The Bluejackets were 15-for-28 in the first half from the floor, while the Braves shot a dismal 8-for-37.Catherine Allen led the Braves with five points in the first half, while Amanda Trambaugh scored 16 of her game-high 21 points and Morse scored 14 of her 15 points in the first half.

"They definitely practice differently than they play," Rieckers said. "When they are in practice they are working hard, but I don't know if it's a confidence factor because we tend to stand around quite a bit."

"It's something we need to work on. They were a couple of Mitchell players diving for loose balls while we just stood there."

The Braves showed a different look in the second half as they outscored the Bluejackets 13-11 in the third quarter and 13-9 in the fourth quarter. Sammie Bane scored five points in the third quarter.

The Braves' defense slowed down the Bluejackets' Morse and Trambaugh in the second half as they allowed them only six points all from the free throw line, but reserve Brianne Fults came off the bench for Mitchell and scored six points on two 3-pointers.

"We have to be ready to go at the beginning of the game, but our effort in practice is different where we go after loose balls and tonight we didn't do that," Rieckers said. "Somewhere inside of us we have it because I saw it this summer.

"We had a very good summer and that has to transform into what we are doing now. I think we missed over 25 shots in the lane."
Shoemaker led the Braves with 10 points, while Jamie Wehmiller and Bane each tossed in eight.

The Braves held a 43-33 rebounding edge on the Bluejackets as Jamie Wehmiller pulled down 11. Tormoehlen and Fleetwood each had eight.

Trambaugh led the Bluejackets with 10.

The Braves were 11 of 15 from the foul line and the Bluejackets were 15 of 25.

The Braves, now 1-4 on the season, will host Salem on Thursday night.


At Brownstown

Mitchell 22 16 11 9 - 58
Brownstown 6 15 13 13 - 47

Mitchell (5-2): Trambaugh 6-10 8-13 21, Hardman 1-4 3-4 5, Wilson 1-7 2-2 4, Cockerham 2-8 0-0 4, Morse 6-14 1-3 15, Trevithick 0-0 0-1 0, Fults 3-7 1-2 9, totals 19-50 15-25 58.

Brownstown (1-4): Tormoehlen 2-14 2-2 6, B. Wehmiller 0-3 0-0 0, Shoemaker 4-7 2-2 10, J. Wehmiller 1-11 6-8 8, Bane 3-15 0-1 8, A. Allen 0-2 0-0 0, M. Allen 2-7 0-0 4, Fleetwood 3-7 0-0 6, C. Allen 2-4 1-2 5, totals 17-70 11-15 47.

3-point goals: Mitchell 5-16 (Trambaugh 1-1, Hardman 0-1, Wilson 0-1, Cockerham 0-4, Morse 2-5, Fults 2-4), BC 2-7 (J. Wehmiller 0-3, Bane 2-4)
Rebounds: Mitchell 33 (Trambaugh 10, Hardman 9), BC 43 (J. Wehmiller 11, Tormoehlen 8, Fleetwood 8).
Turnovers: Mitchell 16, BC 14
Fouls: Mitchell 15, BC 21 (fouled out: Tormoehlen)

Junior Varsity

Mitchell 2 4 4 10 - 20
Brownstown 9 3 7 10 - 29

Brownstown (3-2): J. Hackman 8, Mellencamp 5, Cockerham 4, Quade 4, Brown 4, H. Hackman 2, Settle 2.

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By DENNIS DUNN (the Tribune)

PEKIN - Before the Brownstown Central girls basketball team took the floor on Saturday afternoon at Eastern, the players were already at a disadvantage as Eastern (Pekin) boasted three girls over six-feet tall, while the tallest Brave is 5-10.

That fact played little importance in the outcome of this game, however as it was two of the Musketeers' shortest players on the floor, Melody Dalton and Kaylyn Rodewig, who came up big when it counted the most.

The Braves were leading 51-46 with 1:39 left in the ball game when Dalton got open from the left side and drained a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 51-49. With seven ticks left on the clock, Rodewig used every inch of the rim and backboard to her advantage as her 3-pointer went in to give the Musketeers the 52-51 Mid Southern Conference win.

The Braves fell to 1-3 and 0-1 in the conference, while the Musketeers moved to 4-2 and 2-0 on the year.

"The effort was much better," Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. "From that standpoint, that is definitely an improvement. We are still missing way too many shots in the paint and tonight we missed 20, so those are the shots we have to hit. Some of them are uncontested and we have to make those shots."

After Rodewig's shot went in, the Braves still had a chance to win the game as they brought the ball up the court and Katelyn Shoemaker had a good look at the basket but her shot was too hard and was rebounded by Jamie Wehmiller, whose shot hit the front of the rim as time expired.

"There were 10 disappointed girls in the locker room, but I told them this was their best effort we have had this season," Rieckers said.

The Braves got on the scoreboard when Ashley Allen hit two free throws at the 5:20 mark to cut the lead to 7-2 and Taylor Fleetwood made it 7-4.

Whitney Tormoehlen, Maria Allen and Fleetwood then hit baskets to tie the game at 10-10. After the Musketeers went up 14-10, the Braves used a 7-0 run to lead 17-14. Ashley Allen dropped in a 3-pointer to give them the three-point lead.

The Braves took their biggest lead of the game at 26-20 in the second quarter when Katelyn Shoemaker hit two free throws.

"Basically I told them our effort was much better," Rieckers said. "It's a tough loss when you are in a situation like that. This has been the best effort we have had in three games and we are going to take that and build on that."

The Braves built a 36-30 lead in the third quarter when Jamie Wehmiller hit a layup. At the 2:03 mark of the third quarter, Tormoehlen picked up her third foul and had to sit the bench the rest of the quarter.

Both teams went back and forth in the fourth quarter as the Braves built up a five-point lead, but it wasn't enough for them to claim the win.

Shoemaker led the Braves with 10 points, while Jamie Wehmiller, Ashley Allen and Fleetwood all added eight.

The Braves outrebounded the Musketeers 32-16 as Tormoehlen pulled down a game-high 10.

The Braves finished the game shooting 20-for-51, while the Musketeers went 19-for-46.

The Braves will host Mitchell on Tuesday night.


Brownstown 17 11 13 10 - 51
Eastern. . 16 9 15 12 - 52

BCHS (1-3, 0-1): Tormoehlen 3-12 0-0 6, Shoemaker 3-7 4-4 10, J. Wehmiller
3-8 1-2 7, Bane 3-7 2-2 8, A. Allen 2-3 3-4 8, M. Allen 2-8 0-0 4, Fleetwood 4-6 0-1 8. Totals 20-51 9-13 51

EHS (4-2, 2-0): Dalton 5-8 3-4 15, Collard 1-10 5-8 7, Rodewig 3-9 0-0 8, Adkins 1-1 1-2 3, Mousty 4-7 0-0 8, Olesh 1-3 1-1 3, Lewis 4-6 0-1 8. totals 19-46 10-16 52

3-point goals: BCHS 1-3 (A. Allen 1-1, Bane 0-2), EHS 4-16 (Dalton 2-3, Rodewig 2-5, Collard 0-6, Friedmeyer 0-1, Olesh 0-1); rebounds: BCHS 32 (Tormoehlen 10, Fleetwood 5), EHS 16 (Lewis 4); turnovers: BCHS 15, EHS 15.
fouls: BCHS 14, EHS 14


Junior varsity

Brownstown 4 7 10 11 - 32
Eastern 7 3 9 8 - 27

BCHS (2-2): Mellencamp 10, Quade 7, Settle 6, J. Hackman 5, A. Hackman 2,
Brown 2

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By ZACH SPICER

In basketball, and any other sport, you have to be mentally and physically prepared.

It doesn't matter who you play or what your opponent's record is.

During certain points of Thursday night's girls county rivalry game, Seymour coach Beth DeVinney and Brownstown Central coach Karla Rieckers saw times that were good and some that were not.

DeVinney preferred the first half, when her team led 16-1 after one period of play, and limited Brownstown from making a field goal until a minute into the second quarter. Seymour led the entire game and won, 52-35.

"I think, for us, our focus in the first half was a little better," DeVinney said, compared to their loss against Bloomington South on Tuesday.

"When we hit a couple early shots, it always gives us a little momentum," she said. "Our defensive pressure early in the game was decent, and we got a couple turnovers and we were able to cross those over. Once we hit 10 points, I felt like we were pretty much into the flow of the game."

Rieckers had a flashback to the season-opener game against Columbus East after seeing her team held scoreless Thursday until a free throw at 1:39 in the first quarter. "We did the same thing against East," she said. "We started out a 15-0, Seymour was 13-1, and we just can't do that. We can't play one quarter and score one point. We're not going to win very many ball games like that, and so we have to be mentally prepared to play. Our first quarter is definitely something we need to work on."

One thing both coaches did like about Thursday's game was how physically determined the players were. But they said there's still work to be done.

"If the shots don't go in, we've got to keep attacking the basket," Rieckers said. "You can't hang your head when a few shots don't go in. You just have to believe in yourself."

DeVinney said, "Offensively, we were able to get to the basket. I think we need to finish more. We're missing a lot of layups. We still probably missed six to 10 layups tonight that were easy shots that we should have made. It all comes back to focus, and it all comes back to not playing tired."

Rieckers said sophomore guard Sammie Bane did well against Seymour's Erin Murphy, holding her to only nine points in the game.

But it's the other Seymour players that stepped up and made the game complicated for the Braves.

"When they have so many good players on their team, you give up something and we happened to be giving up the drive," Rieckers said.

In the first half, Seymour shot 15-for-34, while Brownstown was 3-for-31. Owls' freshman Amanda Moore scored seven of her 10 points in the half, and Meredith Adams had nine points.

For the Lady Braves in the first half, Jamie Wehmiller scored a field goal, 3-pointer and two free throws as her team trailed 34-15 at halftime.

Turnovers plagued both teams in the second half, but the Braves did outscore the Owls 20-18.

"We've had a really hard time coming out in the third quarter, and the third quarter has killed us in the last three games we've played," DeVinney said. "We have got to be able to focus."

Wehmiller scored six more points in the second half, and Bane hit a big 3 with 1:30 left in the game, but her team trailed 50-33.

Six Lady Owls managed to put points on the board in the second half, with Murphy and Adams having four each. Murphy finished the game with nine and Adams led all scorers on the night with 13.

For the Lady Braves, Wehmiller led with 11 points and 13 rebounds. Bane was next with seven.

The Braves begin Mid Southern Conference play Saturday afternoon at Eastern.

"We're going to be heading into conference play now," Rieckers said. "Teams are a little bit different that we're going to be playing, and we have to be ready for that. Just like I told them, we'll go back and keep working and the main thing is that we continue to improve as the year goes along. We've got quite a few young kids, so they are going to have some mental breakdowns sometimes, and the main thing is that we come back and we just keep working hard every day."

With the Owls' point guard, Kristin Turner, still out with an injury, it's been an adjustment for Moore to make. DeVinney looks for the team to improve its rebounding.

"We have got to be able to box people out," DeVinney said. "We're not big enough not to do things right, and we've got to get better at that to even have a shot of beating teams that have a considerably taller post.

"For a half, we really did hold our own, and then I think we got tired and our mind got tired. We need to get better at that."

Seymour will host Jennings County in a Hoosier Hills Conference game Tuesday night.

Box Score

At Seymour

Brownstown 1 14 8 12-35
Seymour 16 18 11 7-52

Brownstown (1-2): M. Allen 1-4 2-5 4, J. Wehmiller 5-10 2-2 11, A. Allen 1-9 2-2 4, Bane 1-12 4-5 7, Shoemaker 1-6 0-0 2, B. Wehmiller 0-0 0-0 0, Tormoehlen 1-9 1-2 3, Mellencamp 1-1 0-0 2, Fleetwood 0-5 2-4 2, totals 11-56 13-20 35.

Seymour (4-1): Greger 1-4 0-4 2, Moore 4-8 0-0 10, Murphy 4-12 1-1 9, Adams 6-14 0-0 13, Reinhart 2-5 0-0 4, Booth 0-1 0-0 0, Jones 3-7 0-0 8, A. Carmichael 1-2 0-0 2, Elsner 0-1 0-0 0, Browning 1-1 0-0 2, H. Carmichael 1-1 0-0 2, totals 23-56 1-5 52.

3-point goals: BC 2-6 (Bane 1, J. Wehmiller 1), S 5-12 (Moore 2, Jones 2, Adams 1)
Rebounds: BC 38 (J. Wehmiller 13, Fleetwood 5, Tormoehlen 5), S 25 (Reinhart 7, Adams 4)
Turnovers: BC 23, S 18
Fouls: BC 10, S 19

Junior varsity

Brownstown 7 11 5 8-31
Seymour 11 9 19 8-47

Brownstown : H. Hackman 3, J. Hackman 7, Quade 2, Settle 7, Mellencamp 4, Brown 6, Bays 2.
Seymour : H. Carmichael 9, H. Jones 12, Wieneke 10, Tormoehlen 2, Sutton 2, Hoene 9, Abel 3.

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By Dennis Dunn - sports@thebanner.com

The Brownstown Central girl’s basketball team picked up their first win of the year Saturday night with a convincing 73-43 win over Providence at home.

Both teams had a hard time handling the ball as there were a total of 61 turnovers committed. The Pioneers finished with 35 and the Braves had 26.

“I was definitely disappointed in the way we handled the ball tonight,” Braves Coach Karla Rieckers said. “Turnovers are something that we talk about and the last game we played we had 22 and we had 26 tonight. When we try to play an up-tempo game we are going to turn the ball over more.”

“However we are turning the ball over way too many times. The things the other team is not forcing us to do, we are doing on our own. Considering that’s our second game that is something we are going to continue to work on. We caused them to have some turnovers as well.”

The Braves jumped out to a 12-0 lead in the first quarter as Whitney Tormoehlen had three points, Maria Allen knocked down a 3-pointer, Sammie Bane, Taylor Fleetwood, and Jamie Wehmiller all had two points. The Pioneers scored their first two points at 2:52 on free throws. The Braves led 15-7 after the first eight minutes.

The Pioneers turned the ball over 12 times in the first quarter and the Braves had five.

The Braves outscored the Pioneers 19-11 in the second quarter and owned the 34-18 halftime lead.

“We were proud of our defense tonight, and against Columbus East it seemed like we had girls with first game jitters,” Rieckers said. “Also, tonight we had one girl play in her first game of the year as she is coming off an injury.”

The Braves had three players in double digits as Bane scored 17 points. Maria Allen came off the bench and scored 12, and Jamie Wehmiller added 10.

“Maria Allen came off the bench and she is a freshman, so she is going to make mistakes,” Rieckers said. “I thought overall all of the kids stepped up and played well. We had three players in double figures and two girls with nine, so that’s what I want to see. I think as we go we have to continue to improve. We definitely cannot go into the Seymour game and turn the ball over 27 times.”

The Braves out rebounded the Pioneers 36-25. Tormoehlen led the Braves with nine boards, while Katelyn Shoemaker and Bane each added eight.

Megan Eve led the Pioneers with 11 points.


In the junior varsity game, the Braves led early and often as they claimed the 41-19 win over the Pioneers.

Allyson Hackman scored eight points in the win. Jenna Hackman, Megan Quade, and Hailey Brown all scored six points.

The Braves (1-1) will travel to Seymour on Thursday night to face the ninth-ranked Owls.


Saturday, Nov. 29, at Brownstown

PHS 7 11 16 9 - 43
BCHS 15 19 17 22 - 73

PHS (0-5): Bandy 1 0-0 2, Eve 2- 6-10 11, Hansford 1 0-0 2, M. White 0 0-1 0, L. White 4 1-3 9, Ash 2 2-2 6, Flanagan 1 4-5 6, Swartz 3 1-2 7. Totals 14 14-23 43.

BCHS (1-1): Tormoehlen 3 3-4 9, Shoemaker 1 4-6 6, A. Allen 4 1-1 9, Bane 6- 4-6 17, M. Allen 5 0-0 12, J. Wehmiller 3 4-4 10, C. Allen 2 0-0 4, Fleetwood 2-2-3 6. Totals 25 18-24 73.

3-point goals: PHS 1 (Eve), BCHS 3 (M. Allen 2, Bane); rebounds: PHS 25 (Ash 5, L. White 5, Eve 5), BCHS 36 (Tormoehlen 9, Shoemaker 8, Bane 8); turnovers: PHS 35, BCHS 26; team fouls: PHS 20, BCHS 19 (fouled out: Bane, J. Wehmiller).


Junior Varsity

PHS 4 7 6 2 - 19
BCHS 11 15 4 11 - 41

BCHS (1-1): A. Hackman 8, J. Hackman 6, Quade 6, Brown 6, Settle 5, Bays 5, Cockerham 3, H. Hackman 2.

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tribune@tribtown.com
by Dennis Dunn


BROWNSTOWN - Two teams were heading into Brownstown Central on Saturday winless on the season and between those two teams a total of 61 turnovers were called and 47 free throws were shot.

The Lady Braves took on Providence and walked away with their first win of the year 73-43. The Lady Braves defense was on the ball as they forced the Pioneers into 35 turnovers, but they were just as guilty as they turned the ball over 26 times.

"I was definitely disappointed in the way we handled the ball tonight," Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. "Turnovers are something that we talk about and the last game we played we had 22 and we had 26 tonight. When we try to play an up-tempo game we are going to turn the ball over more.

"However we are turning the ball over way too many times. The thing is, the other team is not forcing us to, we are doing it our own. Considering that's our second game that is something we are going to continue to work on. We caused them to have some turnovers as well."

The Braves took the opening tip and ran with the ball as they led from start to finish. They scored the first 12 points as Whitney Tormoehlen had a free throw, Sammie Bane hit a jump shot, and Tormoehlen connected on a jumper for a 5-0 lead.

The lead ballooned to 8-0 when Maria Allen hit a 3-pointer from the top. Taylor Fleetwood and Jamie Wehmiller each hit a field goal. The Lady Braves led 15-7 after the first quarter.

"We were proud of our defense tonight, and against Columbus East it seemed like we had girls with first-game jitters," Rieckers said. "Also, tonight we had one girl play in her first game of the year as she is coming off an injury."

Wehmiller hit two free throws in the third quarter to double up the Pioneers to lead 36-18. Ashley Allen put the Lady Braves up 20. The Pioneers then went on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 13.

The Lady Braves led 51-34 after three quarters, but outscored the Pioneers 22-9 in the fourth quarter.

"Maria Allen came off the bench and she is a freshman, so she is going to make mistakes," Rieckers said. "I thought overall all of the kids stepped up and played well. We had three players in double figures and two girls with nine, so that's what I want to see. I think as we go we have to continue to improve. We definitely cannot go into the Seymour game and turn the ball over 27 times."

The Braves finished the game 25 of 57 from the floor, while the Pioneers shot 14 of 45.The Lady Braves also won the battle of the boards, 36-25 as Tormoehlen led the team with nine.

Bane led all scorers with 17 points, while Maria Allen scored 12, and Wehmiller contributed 10.

The Lady Braves, 1-1, will travel to Seymour Thursday night.

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BROWNSTOWN - The Columbus East girls built up a 42-13 lead on Brownstown Central and went onto a 74-52 win Saturday night.

East hit 8-for-11 and Brownstown was 3-for-14 from the floor in the opening period, resulting in a 22-7 lead for East. The Olympians made 7-for-15 in the second, compared to 2-for-13 for BC.

"We had good looks at the baskets, we just couldn't get our shots to fall, and it seemed like everything East shot went in," Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. It was East's third game and Brownstown's opener.
Rieckers said, "I had some players starting their first game and I think it was a nerve factor. Once they started hitting, and our shots didn't go in, we got frustrated."

Jamie Wehmiller was high scorer for the Braves with 13 points and Sammie Bane scored 10.

Jordan Ogle had 24 for East.

Brownstown will be home to Providence Saturday night.

Box score

Brownstown 7 6 14 25-52
Columbus 22 20 12 20-74


BC (0-1)- M. Allen 3 2-4 9, J. Wehmiller 5 1-2 13, A. Allen 3 0-1 8, Bane 4 1-2 10, Shoemaker 1 0-1 2, B. Wehmiller 20-0 4, Tormoehlen 2 0-1 4, Mellencamp 1 0-0 2, totals 20 4-5-11 52; 3-point goals: M. Allen 1, J. Wehmiller 2, A Allen 2, Bane 1.

CE (3-0)- Hopkins 6 2-2 16, VanHorn 1 0-0 3, J. Ogle 9 2-2 24, Nomax 2 2-24 6, C. Ogle 5 0-13, Henney 1 0-0 2, Orso 1 0-2 3, Tooley 2 1-2 5, Schneckenberger 1 0-0 2, totals 28 7-12 74, 3-pointgoals- Hopkins 2, VanHorn 1, J. Ogle 4, C. Ogle 3, Orso 1.
Fouls: B 14, CE 16; turnovers: B 22, rebounds: 42 (Shoemaker 10, J., Wehmiller 7, Bane 7), CE 33.

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