Brownstown Central seniors Maria Allen and Hailey Brown will be joined by Seymour juniors Brianna Gillaspy, Sidney Carr and Taylor Gossett on the Class 3A/4A West team. Others on the squad are Ashley Klass of Evansville North, Katie Arterburn of Cathedral, Kayla Brown and Jenn Anderson of Westfield and Shawnece Teague, Brionna Arnold and Rita Patton of Ben Davis.

The all-star games honor all four classes, and more than 100 coaches from small colleges have been invited.

Allen earned the most valuable player award, as well as awards for highest field goal percentage, highest free throw percentage, most assists and most outstanding defense.

Allen shot 47 percent from the field, both 2- and 3-point field goals, and 74 percent from the free-throw line, and she dished out 80 assists.

“She is the last of the Allen sisters, and it won’t be the same next year without an Allen on the team,” Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “She is a three-sport athlete and always does what is told of her.”

Rieckers handed out two other awards. Junior Kaylee Bennett received the rebounding award with 162 boards, and senior Jenna Hackman was presented the mental attitude award.

“Hackman was also a three-sport athlete, and she has been around me since the third grade,” Rieckers said.

“She always brought calmness to the court.”

Allen and senior Hailey Brown were named to the North/South elite senior team and the PostYourT.org East/West All-Class All-Star team.

Allen and Brown also were named to the all-Mid-Southern Conference team.

“Brown developed into the shooter we wanted her to be and improved on her defense without fouling,” Rieckers said.

Allen leaves Brownstown at No. 8 on the career scoring list with 919 points, and Brown is 15th on the scoring list with 583. Brown is tied for fourth on the career list in 3-pointers with 72, and Allen is fifth on the career list with 232 free throws.

Also, Rieckers said Bennett and junior Kaley Wilkerson were named to the North/South elite junior team, and senior managers Caitlin Conrad and Lauren Johnson received their letter jackets.

The Lady Braves went 20-4, including 7-2 in the MSC, in their first year playing at the Class 3A level. They scored 1,382 points on the year by hitting 436 field goals and 309 free throws, and they tallied 256 offensive rebounds, 471 defensive rebounds, 280 assists, 232 steals, 347 turnovers and 152 blocks.

Their high point total of the year was 98 against Clarksville, and their low was 32 against Scottsburg in the sectional finals.

A highlight was winning the Toby Yoho Classic over the Christmas break.

“We play in a difficult conference, and before the year, we put a lot of emphasis on rebounding,” Rieckers said. “This is the first team to win the Toby Yoho tourney. We played four teams this year who won a sectional title, and three of those teams won the regional. People don’t realize how tough of a schedule we play, and (the players) always have the never-quit attitude.”

As for the junior varsity team, Lee Ann Borden noted this was the best year she has ever had as a coach, going 15-2. Sophomore Trinity Booher received the highest free throw percentage award (69.3) and the most improved player award.

The Brownstown Central Lady Braves starters did their job in the first quarter of Friday’s Class 3A Sectional 30 semifinal game against Corydon Central, building a 14-10 lead. That included three 3-pointers.

Then, in the second quarter, girls coming off the bench had no fear in taking the big shots. Kourtney Settle knocked down a pair of 3s from the left wing, Trinity Booher hit one from the top of the key and Presley Dmitriev nailed one at the top-left side.

Those big shots helped the Braves build a 34-19 lead by halftime, and they went on to beat the Panthers 59-47 to earn a spot in tonight’s championship game against Scottsburg, a 54-48 winner over North Harrison in the other semifinal.

“Everybody pretty much we know can make that shot. It goes back to having the confidence to shoot that shot,” Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “When we do some drills in practice, we actually can make more 3-pointers in a certain amount of time than we do 2s, and it just hasn’t carried over into a game.”

In Friday’s big-game situation, it couldn’t have come at a better time.

“They had the confidence, and I told them if they miss a shot, you have to keep shooting,” Rieckers said. “Have the confidence to step up and keep shooting the basketball.”

Maria Allen and Jenna Hackman’s first-quarter 3s gave Brownstown a three-point lead each time, while Hailey Brown’s trey made it a four-point game. Booher entered the game late in the first quarter and was fouled on a shot and made both free throws, and with six seconds to go, she came up with a steal, drove to the basket and was fouled and made 1 of 2 for a 14-10 lead.

Allen found Settle open from the left 35 seconds into the second quarter for a seven-point lead, and then Marie Rothrock scored for the Panthers at the 7-minute mark.

That’s when the Braves went on a 12-0 run. Hackman started the streak with a drive to the basket at 6:46, and then came a 3 from Settle, two free throws each by Kaley Wilkerson and Brown and Booher’s triple.

Reagan Mosley ended the run with a free throw at 2:02, and Corydon outscored the Braves 6-5 from there for a 34-19 score at halftime.

Booher scored all six of her points in the first half, and the sophomore said she’s not afraid to take a shot.

“In the beginning of the season, we were all kind of a little shaky about that and didn’t really want to shoot, and we were like, ‘Here, you take it,’” she said. “But now, I think we’ve got the confidence when we come in and we’re open, we’re going to shoot it. If it doesn’t fall, we just keep going.”

That comes down to confidence, she said, and it made a difference in the first half.

“We got confidence in what we were doing and with each other, and we just started hitting and playing like a team,” Booher said.

Allen turned a Corydon turnover into a layup two minutes into the third quarter, but then Brownstown went in a slump, missing its next five shots. The Braves then had a couple turnovers before committing three more in the final two minutes. The Panthers went on a 5-0 run off of turnovers to pull within 43-32 at 1:20.

Brownstown called a timeout, and then each team scored a basket for a 45-34 score going into the fourth.

Brown started the fourth with a big 3 from the left corner, and the Braves took better care of the ball and didn’t allow the Panthers to go on a big run.

“Corydon is the type of team that they are well-coached, and we knew that they would make a little bit of a run,” Rieckers said of the third quarter. “We handled their run and came back and just didn’t fold and matched that when we started the fourth quarter. A team like them, they are young and they have good athletes, and they are just going to keep coming and not give up that easy.

“We talked about refocusing in between quarters,” she added, “and I think their defense came out and we did a better job.”

Allen led all scorers with 16 points, while Brown had 10 and Kaley Wilkerson had nine points and a game-high eight rebounds. The Braves had a 35-21 rebounding advantage.

Taylor Frederick topped the Panthers (13-10) with 15 points and six boards, but she was the only one to reach double figures.

Tonight’s championship game will feature the No. 8 team in 3A, Brownstown, taking on the No. 12 team, Scottsburg. The Warriorettes defeated the Braves 61-46 on Jan. 31.

“We’ve got to start hard like we did tonight and everybody be scoring and playing good defense and going out and having confidence,” Booher said.

In the teams’ last meeting, Brownstown only had four first-quarter points. Rieckers said that can’t happen again.

“It goes back again to having the confidence because early in the game against Scottsburg, we didn’t have that confidence,” she said. “We let them dominate from the beginning, and our girls know that that wasn’t a typical game that we should have played. I think they’ll be ready.”

Box score

Class 3A Sectional 30

At Charlestown

Semifinals

Brownstown 14 20 11 14—59

Corydon 10 9 15 13—47

Brownstown Central (20-3): Maria Allen 5-9 5-6 16, Hailey Brown 3-9 2-2 10, Kaylee Bennett 1-5 0-0 2, Jenna Hackman 2-8 0-0 5, Kaley Wilkerson 3-6 3-4 9, Kourtney Settle 2-4 0-0 6, Trinity Booher 1-1 3-4 6, Presley Dmitriev 1-2 0-0 3, Allie Warren 1-2 0-0 2, Jaelyn Reynolds 0-2 0-0 0, Brooke Ebbing 0-1 0-0 0, Kasandra Rieckers 0-0 0-0 0, totals 19-49 13-16 59

Corydon Central (13-10): Symphony LeJeune 2-4 0-0 5, Kayla Uhl 0-4 2-4 2, Taylor Frederick 5-9 5-10 15, Marie Rothrock 3-10 2-2 8, Reagan Mosley 2-3 3-4 7, Aly Chambers 0-2 0-0 0, Chelsea John 0-0 2-2 2, Rachel Deaton 2-6 0-0 6, Savannah Eschbacher 1-3 0-0 2, Kelley Bridgett 0-0 0-0 0, Kaitlin Salomon 0-0 0-1 0, totals 15-41 14-23 47

3-point goals: Brownstown Central (Brown 2, Settle 2, Allen, Hackman, Booher, Dmitriev), Corydon Central (Deaton 2, LeJeune)

Rebounds: Brownstown Central 35 (Wilkerson 8, Allen 7, Brown 5), Corydon Central 21 (Frederick 6, Uhl 4)

Turnovers: Brownstown Central 16, Corydon Central 13

Fouls: Brownstown Central 15, Corydon Central 13

Brownstown Central defeated Charlestown 60-29 in a Mid-Southern Conference game on Jan. 7, but that didn’t mean a thing in the Class 3A Sectional 30 game on Wednesday night in the Pirates’ gymnasium.

The Lady Braves held a 25-22 lead late in the third period, and then scored the final two baskets of that quarter and outscored the Pirates 16-15 in the fourth to post a 45-37 win.

The Braves scored the first seven points of the game to lead throughout the first period before the Pirates rallied to tie the score at 10 with 3:22 remaining until halftime.

Brownstown remained ahead throughout the second half but held only a 25-22 lead with two minutes left in the third. Back-to-back baskets by Charlestown’s Taryn Moore and Jessica Farmer cut Brownstown’s lead to 42-37 with 1:04 left in the game.

The Braves defense was key, as it held the Pirates to 15 for 48 shooting from the floor and forced Charlestown into 21 turnovers.

“I thought our defensive play from our guards was a nice job,” Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “Where we were getting hurt was in the post when we were playing behind and we wouldn’t step over and help. Obviously (Justice Burdin) took advantage of that. We needed to pick a side, and we weren’t picking a side, we were playing behind her. She did a really nice job posting, and we didn’t adjust to that very well. “

Burdin, a 5-foot-11 freshman, scored 19 points, but no other Pirate scored more than eight.

Kaley Wilkerson made a pair of free throws, Jenna Hackman hit a 3-pointer from the left corner and Maria Allen added a layup to put the Braves up 7-0 with 2:56 left in the opening period.

The Pirates (4-17) had seven turnovers and shot 0 for 7 during that time, and they didn’t score until Burdin made a basket with 30 seconds left in the period.

Both teams struggled putting the ball in the basket in the second period, with the Braves shooting 3 for 16 and the Pirates 3 for 10, and it was a 17-13 game at the half. Hailey Brown had two baskets and two free throws in the period to lead the Braves.

“I thought some of the shots we were taking were pretty good shot selection, but I didn’t think we were getting them to fall the way we needed to,” Rieckers said. “And then I think when you have shots that you typically make that don’t fall, you start to have frustration set in and start to doubt whether you should take that shot. We were just kind of tight and just weren’t shooting the way we typically do.”

Two free throws by Brown, a runner in the lane by Allen and a layup by Wilkerson enabled the Braves to outscore the Pirates 6-2 and build their lead to 23-15 with 5:30 on the clock.

Points by Allen, Hackman and Presley Dmitriev in the final 2:52 helped the Braves lead 29-22 going into the final period.

A three-point play by Allen gave the Braves their biggest lead of the night at 40-29 with 2:07 remaining, but the Pirates weren’t done, as a pair of 3-pointers by Moore and a layup by Farmer cut the Braves’ lead to 42-37 with 1:04 remaining.

Allen and Hackman added free throws in the final 25 seconds to close the scoring.

Allen topped the Braves with 11 points, and Brown scored 10. Kaylee Bennett and Wilkerson each had eight rebounds and Kourtney Settle pulled down six to help the Braves to a 32-30 advantage in that department.

Rieckers said her team did a good job of hustling in the second half.

“We talked about making sure we didn’t give them second-chance points because I really thought we were giving up a lot of offensive boards,” she said. “They were getting putbacks, and when you’re in a tournament game, you just can’t do that.”

Hackman said this was definitely a wake-up call for the Braves.

“I think we came in not prepared,” she said. “Our defense wasn’t up to what it should be. We weren’t moving our feet, and by the time we stepped over, we were getting fouls called on us, and then we got in foul trouble.

“Friday, we’ve got to play a lot more intense defense and make quicker passes looking inside and finishing our shots,” she added. “We couldn’t get any shots to fall tonight, but hopefully it will all change on Friday.”

The Braves shot 15 for 51 to the Pirates’ 15 of 48. At the line, the Braves were 14 for 20 and the Pirates were 5 for 18.

The Braves (19-3) will play Corydon Central in the second game on Friday, as the Panthers defeated Silver Creek 50-44 in the second game on Wednesday.

Box score

Brownstown 7 10 12 16—45

Charlestown 4 9 9 15—37

Brownstown Central (19-3): Maria Allen 4-10 3-4 11, Hailey Brown 3-11 4-4 10, Kaylee Bennett 0-7 4-6 4, Jenna Hackman 2-7 1-2 6, Kaley Wilkerson 2-11 2-4 6, Kourtney Settle 2-2 0-0 4, Presley Dmitriev 2-2 0-0 4, Trinity Booher 0-1 0-0 0, Allie Warren 0-0 0-0 0, totals 15-51 14-20 45

Charlestown (4-17): Kaitlynn Henning 1-11 0-0 2, Taryn Moore 3-10 0-0 8, Jessica Farmer 2-9 0-1 4, Justice Burdin 8-11 3-6 19, Megan Brooks 0-3 1-4 1, Taylor Thrasher 0-2 0-2 0, Emily Young 1-2 1-5 3, Jasmine Harvey 0-0 0-0 0, totals 15-48 5-18 37

3-point goals: Brownstown Central (Hackman), Charlestown (Moore 2)

Rebounds: Brownstown Central 32 (Bennett 8, Wilkerson 8, Settle 6), Charlestown 30 (Young 8, Burdin 6)

Turnovers: Brownstown Central 13, Charlestown 21

CORYDON — In the first half of Saturday’s game, the Brownstown Central post players got in foul trouble and shots near the basket weren’t falling.

So being a senior leader, guard Jenna Hackman stepped up and took shots she said she normally doesn’t take. She made a pair of 2-pointers and one 3-pointer in the first quarter, sank a 3 in the second and third quarters and added two more baskets in a fourth-quarter shootout between Brownstown and Corydon Central.

Hackman finished with a game- and career-high 20 points, and she was one of three Lady Braves scoring in double figures in a key Mid-Southern Conference win, 55-47.

The victory moved the Class 3A No. 8 Braves to 17-2 overall and 7-1 in the MSC, and they are still in the running for a share of the MSC title with one game remaining.

“I usually don’t feel that confident in my shot because they don’t usually fall,” Hackman said. “But once they start falling, you’ve just got to keep shooting them. They were big shots because we couldn’t get anything else falling and I was open, so I had to keep shooting them.”

Neither team’s lead exceeded four points in the first half.

Brownstown led by three on Maria Allen’s feed to Hackman for a layup in transition at 2:14 of the first quarter and Kaley Wilkerson’s basket at 1:01. Corydon’s biggest lead was three points at 5:04, and Taylor Frederick’s free throws at 16 seconds pulled the Panthers within 13-12 heading into the second quarter.

Frederick gave the Panthers their only lead of the second quarter at 7:24 with a pair of free throws, but Allen’s steal and layup and Hackman’s assist to Wilkerson put the Braves back on top. They led 22-18 at the break.

Back-to-back steals near the 3-minute mark of the third quarter turned into four straight points for the Braves, giving them a 31-21 lead. The Panthers then had three more turnovers until, in the final minute, Frederick made a layup on a Brownstown miscue and Kayla Uhl made 1 of 2 free throws to pull within 31-24 entering the fourth.

Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers was glad to see her team’s defense cause some turnovers in the third.

“I thought that our press was more effective,” she said. “We started playing a little bit better defensively and shifting from side to side, which we weren’t doing as much (in the first half). We were standing and reaching too much in the beginning, and we just need to move our feet and play better defense.”

Beating Corydon on a last-second shot last year, Rieckers knew it would be an all-out battle. That really showed in the fourth quarter.

With 6:29 to go, Uhl hit a big 3 to pull the Panthers within 31-27. That was the closest they could get, but the Braves only outscored them 24-23. The big factor for Brownstown was it never let Corydon score more than three straight points.

Starter Kaylee Bennett, who committed two fouls and didn’t score in the first half, made four of her five field-goal attempts in the fourth along with two free throws at seven seconds for the game’s final margin.

In the fourth, Hackman made two baskets and a free throw, Allen scored off of a steal and had three free throws, Hailey Brown made her only basket of the game and Trinity Booher made two free throws with a minute left for a 50-42 lead.

“Whenever they get a big shot, we need to make sure to block out if it doesn’t go in,” Hackman said of what was key in the fourth. “If it does (go in), then we have to get back and try to get a good shot, not necessarily a big 3 or anything, but a high-percentage shot.”

Joining Hackman in double figures were Allen with 15 points and Bennett with 10. Bennett led the team with seven rebounds, and the Braves had a 30-29 edge in that department.

“Jenna is a player that we know can make those shots,” Rieckers said. “We need her to step out and take those shots. We know a lot of times she focuses on passing and her defense and stuff like that, but she’s capable of knocking down those shots, too, so certainly glad that she did that because we needed somebody to step out and do that today.”

Frederick led the Panthers (11-9 overall, 4-4 MSC) with 17 points, while Uhl tallied 10.

With Scottsburg’s 62-38 thrashing of Silver Creek on Saturday night, Scottsburg, Brownstown and Eastern (Pekin) are at the top of the MSC standings at 7-1, and Silver Creek finished 7-2.

This week, Brownstown travels to play Scottsburg and Eastern plays host to North Harrison, so those games will determine the outcome of the MSC.

Brownstown 13 9 9 24—55

Corydon 12 6 6 23—47

Brownstown Central (17-2): Maria Allen 6-10 3-5 15, Hailey Brown 1-7 0-0 2, Kaylee Bennett 4-8 2-2 10, Jenna Hackman 7-11 3-4 20, Kaley Wilkerson 3-4 0-2 6, Trinity Booher 0-4 2-2 2, Kourtney Settle 0-3 0-0 0, Presley Dmitriev 0-1 0-0 0, Allie Warren 0-0 0-0 0, Brooke Ebbing 0-0 0-0 0, totals 21-48 10-15 55

Corydon Central (11-9): Symphony LeJeune 0-4 0-0 0, Kayla Uhl 3-8 1-2 10, Taylor Frederick 3-10 11-17 17, Marie Rothrock 3-11 0-2 7, Reagan Mosley 1-2 5-7 7, Savannah Eschbacher 2-4 0-2 4, Aly Chambers 1-1 0-0 2, totals 13-40 17-30 47

3-point goals: Brownstown Central (Hackman 3), Corydon Central (Uhl 3, Rothrock)

Rebounds: Brownstown Central 30 (Bennett 7, Wilkerson 5, Allen 5), Corydon Central 29 (Eschbacher 9, Rothrock 5, Mosley 5)

Turnovers: Brownstown Central 14, Corydon Central 14

Junior varsity

Brownstown 10 10 10 8—38

Corydon 4 12 7 6—29

RAMSEY — Sharp shooting from the perimeter to the post helped the Brownstown Central Lady Braves bolt past North Harrison.

After allowing North Harrison to score the first seven points of Thursday’s Mid-Southern Conference game, Brownstown got set for shots and played sharp defense. Despite the Cats’ Kendra Lambert scoring 10 points in the first quarter, all five Brave starters contributed in the scoring column for a 21-15 lead.

The Braves then scored the first 10 points of the second quarter, had an off third quarter and got back on track and scored the first 12 points of the fourth en route to a 65-48 victory.

That moved Class 3A No. 8 Brownstown to 16-2 overall and 6-1 in the MSC, and the Braves have now won 14 straight.

To start the game, though, Brownstown had turnovers on back-to-back possessions. Lambert stole the ball and drove in for a layup to open the scoring, and she then knocked down a 3-pointer. Emily Giles’ free throws made it 7-0, but Kaley Wilkerson’s basket at 5:45 put Brownstown on the scoreboard.

Lambert’s second trey at 3:21 gave North Harrison a 10-6 lead, but Maria Allen started Brownstown on an 8-0 run. The Cats pulled within one point twice, including 16-15 on Kasey Kelley’s backdoor score at 34 seconds.

The Braves responded with five points in nine seconds to take a 21-15 lead into the second quarter.

“We were down 7-0, and we can score a lot of points in a short amount of time, so I wasn’t really worried about that,” Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “We finally started moving the ball better. We were forcing some passes that I didn’t think we had people open.

“We (began) making that extra pass and finding that extra person under the basket and breaking apart their zone,” she added, “and when we did that, we definitely got the looks that we needed and were able to score a lot of points.”

The Braves had four points and the Cats had two turnovers by 5:57 of the second quarter, forcing a North Harrison timeout. Hailey Brown’s three-point play 1:22 later capped off Brownstown’s 10-0 run, and North Harrison had four miscues and was 0 of 1 from the field.

Wilkerson and Allen each had two free throws in the final 38 seconds to give the Braves a 39-21 lead at halftime.

In the third quarter, though, Brownstown apparently got a little too comfortable with its lead. The Braves committed nine of their 22 turnovers in the period, and the Cats had a 9-4 scoring advantage by the 4-minute mark that turned into a 13-8 edge to pull within 47-34 heading into the fourth.

“I kind of thought that our defense got a little bit lackadaisical,” Rieckers said of the third. “We wanted to come from behind and act like we wanted to block some shots instead of really moving and playing good, disciplined defense the way that we need to and the way that we should be.”

To Rieckers’ relief, the Braves returned to form and opened the fourth on a 12-0 run. Allen’s three-point play at 7:18 kicked off the run, and her penetration and dish-off to Kourtney Settle at 4:05 closed the streak.

The difference in the fourth? Getting the ball going in transition and blocking out.

“We got the ball out, and we feel like we’re pretty conditioned and we have good athletes on our team that are quick and can get the ball down the floor, and I thought we did a nice job of that,” Rieckers said. “And I thought we used our size well to block out. I thought Kaley Wilkerson did a great job. She stepped over on the screens and helped on defense when she needed to, and she made some nice shots for us tonight. We need her to continue to do that.”

Four of the five Brownstown starters scored in double figures. Brown and Wilkerson each had 12 points, while Allen and Jenna Hackman recorded 11 apiece. The fifth starter, Kaylee Bennett, had nine points and a game-high nine rebounds.

After being outrebounded the last couple of games, the Braves dominated on Thursday, 33-13.

“We’ve been working on it a lot in practice,” said Wilkerson, a 6-foot-2 junior. “We picked up a lot on it.”

Wilkerson was next for the Braves with six boards, and she shot 5 of 7 from the field. As a team, the Braves shot 26 of 41, while the Cats were 16 of 43.

“I’m a little more confident than I usually am,” she said of shooting short jumpers. “I just get set, and you’ve got to follow through.”

Lambert led all scorers with 20 points, but she was the only Cat in double figures. The Braves’ defense held her to only one field goal in the second half, but she was 6 of 8 from the foul line.

“We talked about helping on her in the second half, and we talked about switching if we needed to and making sure we always knew where she was and just kind of denying her the ball,” Rieckers said of Lambert. “I think that made a difference because somebody else had to step up, and she’s really their go-to player.”

BROWNSTOWN — Some coaches say they feel fortunate when their team pulls out a win but does not bring its A game to the gymnasium.

“They have a really nice team, and they have two really nice players,” Brownstown Central girls basketball coach Karla Rieckers said of Southwestern (Shelby) on Tuesday night. “We knew they would play hard. They got a vote to be rated in 1A this week, so they are a quality team. But we have to be ready to play, and we were not ready to play tonight.”

The Braves took the lead for good early in the second period, but they never could put the Spartans away and settled for a 57-54 win.

Brownstown held a 46-39 lead entering the final quarter. When Southwestern’s Oda Shackelford made two free throws to cut Brownstown’s lead to 50-47 with 5:19 remaining, Rieckers called a timeout and told her team it needed to focus down the stretch. Jenna Hackman made a free throw and Hailey Brown scored a basket from along the baseline to boost the lead to 53-47.

Southwestern’s Brooke Hommel made a 3-pointer to reduce the Braves’ lead to 53-50 before Kaley Wilkerson and Brown made layups for the Braves in the final 35 seconds to preserve the win.

Brown scored 10 points in the fourth period and topped the Braves with 14 points.

“We should have been in a position to pull it out and force them to foul, but they forced some turnovers and we held on for the win,” Rieckers said after her team committed four turnovers in the fourth period.

Maria Allen’s second basket of the game put the Braves on top 10-4 at 3:55 of the opening period before the Spartans rallied behind four baskets from Shackelford, a 6-foot-1 sophomore, to take an 18-14 lead into the second period.

Southwestern held a 20-16 lead when Brownstown used a balanced scoring attack to outscore the Spartans 20-6 to take a 38-26 lead. Kourtney Settle hit a 3-pointer and a deuce, Allen, Brown, Hackman and Wilkerson scored two baskets apiece and Kaylee Bennett made a free throw and a basket to help the Braves lead 38-30 at the half.

Settle made a basket and two free throws to help the Braves extend their lead to 42-32 with 3:25 remaining in the third period. Layups by Brown and Trinity Booher helped Brownstown increase its lead to 46-34 late in the quarter.

Settle said the Braves did not take the Spartans seriously.

“We looked at our scouting report,” she said. “They’re a 1A team and we just thought it would be a cakewalk, but it wasn’t, and I’m pretty sure everyone has learned from that because this was not a good win.”

She said it was definitely a wake-up call.

“We haven’t been having as much intensity in practice, and tomorrow, we’re really going to step it up in practice,” Settle said. “We need to learn that once we get a lead, we need to take it and keep it and not let them back in it.”

The Braves have won 13 in a row and are 15-2, while Southwestern slipped to 8-6.

“Not to take anything away from their players and their team, but we did not perform the way we are capable of performing tonight, top to bottom,” Rieckers said. “We have to play harder, we have to block out, we have to do all the little things, and we didn’t do that tonight. We’re fortunate to win, and we have to get it fixed because we have some very tough games coming up.

“When we played Brown County in the Eastern Greene Tournament, they were missing two of their starters, and that is going to be a totally different game on Saturday,” she added, “and then we have three very tough conference games and then we end with Paoli, so there is not an easy game left.”

Shackelford topped the Spartans with 20 points and 13 rebounds, and Annie Thomas scored 17.

Allen scored 10 points for the Braves, and Wilkerson led Brownstown in rebounds with 10.

NORTH VERNON — Through their first 14 game of the season, the Jennings County Lady Panthers were winless.

On Saturday at home, they played like a team whose record doesn’t depict that, as they battled Brownstown Central hard.

The Lady Braves knew the Panthers couldn’t be overlooked, and they found that out. They, however, took a 16-point halftime lead and increased it to 24 points en route to a 64-47 win.

Even though it was a 17-point win, the Braves had a hard time finding the basket early. Maria Allen made the team’s first basket midway through the first quarter, and that led to an 8-0 run. Allen scored six of those points by hitting her first three shots of the first quarter.

“We knew even though Jennings County’s record is not very good, they were a team that definitely plays hard the whole time,” Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “If you take a look at their schedule, they don’t have an easy game on their schedule, so I kept telling our team their record was no indication of the kind of basketball team they are.

“Sometimes you hear that, but once you see that on the floor, it’s a little different,” she added. “I think after awhile, (her girls) knew they had to step up their play and they were going to battle us from the beginning to the end.”

Brownstown held a 13-5 first-quarter lead, and Jenna Hackman scored at the beginning of the second quarter for the Braves’ first double-digit lead. The Panthers then scored four straight, but Allen made it 17-9.

Hailey Brown later gave the Braves a 21-11 lead, but the Panthers’ Baylee Krueger drained a 3-pointer to make it 21-14. That, however, was the closest they would get to the Braves.

Allen and Kaylee Bennett had back-to-back baskets for a 25-14 score. After the Panthers hit a free throw, the Braves went on a 6-0 run for a 31-16 at the break.

Hackman, Allen, Kaley Wilkerson and Brown scored Brownstown’s first eight points of the third quarter to increase the Braves’ lead to 40-16. Jaelyn Reynolds scored the final two points of the third quarter to give them a 50-33 lead.

“Any time you can start a half on (a run) is something that we have concentrated on because we don’t always come out in the third quarter and capitalize on a team the way we did today,” Rieckers said. “We talked about coming out and making a statement, and if we could score a couple of baskets, then that would take some of their confidence away from them.”

Brown’s 3-pointer in the fourth quarter gave them another 20-point lead. Jaylyn Quade and Brooke Ebbing got into the scoring column late in the quarter.

The one downfall for the Braves was the Panthers won the rebounding battle 35-22. Brown and Bennett each had four boards to lead the Braves. The Panthers’ Brooke Elmore had a game-high 12 rebounds.

“Rebounding, we need to do a better job,” Rieckers said. “In rebounding, we were giving them too many extra chances, and we need to play help-side defense because we gave up some easy shots inside the lane that we just can’t give up.”

Brown led the Braves with 17 points, while Allen scored 14 and Bennett dropped in 10.

Krueger led the Panthers (0-15) with 12 points.

Brownstown 13 21 18 14—64

Brownstown Central (14-2): Maria Allen 7-10 0-0 14, Hailey Brown 6-10 3-5 17, Kaylee Bennett 4-11 2-3 10, Jenna Hackman 3-5 2-2 9, Kaley Wilkerson 1-1 0-0 2, Trinity Booher 0-0 0-2 0, Presley Dmitriev 0-0 0-0 0, Brooke Ebbing 0-0 1-2 1, Kourtney Settle 1-3 2-2 4, Allie Warren 2-4 0-0 4, Jaelyn Reynolds 1-2 0-0 2, Jaylyn Quade 0-0 1-2 1, Riley Wischmeier 0-0 0-0 0, totals 25-46 11-18 64

Jennings County (0-15): Kirsten Biggs 0-6 2-3 2, Emily Ertel 2-7 0-0 4, Baylee Krueger 4-14 3-5 13, Brooke Elmore 4-8 2-3 10, Halea Petro 2-3 0-0 4, Emma Campbell 3-5 0-0 6, Mariah Kinney 0-4 0-1 0, Sydney Kirchner 1-4 1-3 3, Kristi Granecki 2-4 0-0 5, totals 18-55 8-15 47

3-point goals: Brownstown Central (Brown 2, Hackman), Jennings County (Krueger 2, Granecki)

Rebounds: Brownstown Central 22 (Brown 4, Bennett 4), Jennings County 35 (Elmore 12)

Turnovers: Brownstown Central 11, Jennings County 18

Junior varsity

Brownstown 9 10 13 8 4—44

Jennings County 6 7 18 9 7—47

Brownstown Central (11-1): Ebbing 16, Booher 8, Wischmeier 7, Reynolds 6, Ally Lorenzo 5, Warren 2

BROWNSTOWN — The Brownstown Central Lady Braves basketball team simply had too much experience and too much athleticism for a young Charlestown team in Saturday’s Mid-Southern Conference game.

The Braves limited the Pirates to six field goals and easily outscored Charlestown in each of the first three periods to roll to a 60-29 win.

Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers said her team took advantage of its experience, as there aren’t any seniors on the Charlestown team. The visitors started two freshmen, one sophomore and two juniors.

“We knew that they were young, but they’re a very competitive team. We wanted to make sure that we set the tone early,” Rieckers said. “I didn’t feel like the tempo, for the first two minutes of the game, was where we wanted it to be. When they played zone, we were a little bit slower, and we like a faster-paced game, so we talked about speeding up the tempo because that plays into our favor. And then, when we attack the zone, we kick the ball out and we had several girls knock down some 3s, which is always good, and then they had to come out of the zone.”

The first two minutes of play was filled with missed shots and turnovers, as neither team lit up the scoreboard until Maria Allen scored off of an offensive rebound at 5:50 to give the Braves a 2-0 lead. The Braves held a 4-3 lead before Kaylee Bennett scored on a jumper in the lane with 2:05 on the clock, and Allie Warren and Trinity Booher followed with baskets to give the Braves a 10-3 lead heading into the second period.

Hailey Brown opened the second-quarter scoring with a 3-pointer, and her second 3 of the period gave the Braves a 17-5 lead at 5:25. Jenna Hackman had a hot hand in the period, making a 3, a 2-point basket and 3 of 4 free throws for eight points to spark her team to a 30-10 lead at the break.

The Pirates, who were 0 for 5 from the floor in the first period, didn’t make their first field goal until Justice Burdin scored off of an offensive rebound at 5:35 of the second quarter. Charlestown shot 2 for 17 in the first half and 6 for 33 for the game. The Pirates finished with 22 turnovers.

“We did some man pressure,” Rieckers said. “We thought with some of their inexperience and youth that playing pressure defense would force some turnovers on their part, so we talked about defense, and that is something we’ve been building on all year. To hold a team to just 10 points in the first half, you couldn’t have asked for a better defensive effort.

“We got to change defenses a little bit,” she added. “When we switched, we were doing a nice job getting the traps we needed to get and cutting off the drive because we knew they had players that would drive and they also have players that are 3-point shooters, so we needed to make sure we defended both, the drive to the basket and the kick-out for the 3, and I thought we did a nice job of that.”

The Braves kept the pressure on at both ends of the floor in the third quarter. Allen made three baskets and was 3 for 3 at the foul line, while Brown added a basket and three free throws to help the Braves outscore the Pirates 19-8 and increase the lead to 49-18 going into the fourth period.

Charlestown scored the first six points of the fourth quarter before the Braves responded with an 11-0 run to take its biggest lead of the game at 60-24 on a basket by Kasandra Rieckers with 1:45 remaining.

Allen topped the Braves with 15 points, while Brown scored 11 and Hackman 10.

Burdin topped the Pirates (2-10) with 10 points.

The rebounds were even at 21, and Kourtney Settle topped the Braves with seven.

BROWNSTOWN — Finally, the Brownstown Central girls basketball team was able to set the tone early against a Mid-Southern Conference opponent.

The Lady Braves were running and gunning early and often on Tuesday night against Clarksville, scoring the first 20 points of the game and forcing the Generals into seven turnovers in the first quarter. Brownstown led 51-13 at halftime and played with junior varsity girls a majority of the second half, and the Braves won 98-26.

“Coming out strong is our one main goal,” said Lady Braves senior Hailey Brown, who had 14 of her game- and career-high 27 points in the first quarter. “We want to come out first in the first quarter, first in the second quarter and third quarter and fourth quarter, carry it on out. That’s one of our main things that we like to think about.”

Coach Karla Rieckers opted to try a 1-3-1 defense, and that led to Clarksville turning the ball over before getting across half-court and Brownstown scoring off of it. The Braves also were solid on the fast break in the first quarter, and five players had points in building a 29-2 lead.

“We’re a team of fast breaks,” Brown said. “We always want to do fast breaks, and luckily, we had a lot of those in the first half and it got us up a little bit more. If you have good teammates and pass the ball on a fast break and you’re quick on offense, then you’re good. We had a lot of team chemistry tonight, and that’s good to have.”

Brownstown then scored the first seven points of the second quarter, while Clarksville had back-to-back turnovers before Shelby Carta hit a shot at 3:06.

The Braves later put together a 10-0 run between a pair of General baskets. Trinity Booher capped the Braves’ run with a pair of free throws, and then Clarksville’s Haley Jenkins had a putback at 1:25 and a free throw at 15 seconds, setting the score at 51-13 at halftime.

“Something that we’ve started to count is deflections,” Rieckers said. “When we have a lot of deflections in a game, we’re playing good defense. Earlier in the year when we were down at halftime (at Salem), we had four deflections at that time. But tonight, when you looked at the deflections, we probably ended up with 30-some for the game, so that means we’re getting in the passing lanes and we’re doing things we need to do on defense.”

Brownstown opened the second half on an 11-1 run before Rieckers made five substitutions. Booher’s assist to Kourtney Settle at 2:55 made it 64-14 and forced a Clarksville timeout, and the Braves took a 72-19 lead into the fourth quarter.

That’s when seven Braves put points on the board, with Brooke Ebbing scoring 10, Riley Wischmeier and Booher with four apiece and four others each with two.

Brown’s 27 points came on 11-of-11 shooting from the floor, including a pair of 3s, and making all three of her free throws. Other Braves in double figures were Ebbing with 15 and Booher and Kaylee Bennett with 11 apiece. All 12 Braves who played in the game scored.

Hall was the only General in double digits, scoring 11 points.

“We’ve had games this year where we’ve needed to put some of those (junior varsity) players in because of foul trouble, and this was just a good confidence builder for them to get in the game and to get some varsity experience because a lot of them are young,” Rieckers said. “Any time you can do that, that’s a great opportunity for them.”

AUSTIN — When you get outscored 16-5 in the fourth quarter and still find a way to win, that’s the sign of a tough team.

The Brownstown Central girls basketball team squeaked out another Mid-Southern Conference win on Saturday night, defeating Austin 50-48.

The Lady Braves started out strong in each half, leading 17-7 after one quarter of play and pulling ahead by 20 twice in the third quarter. But Brownstown saw its 45-32 lead it had going into the fourth quarter get slimmer as Austin drove to the basket and either made shots or drew fouls and got to the line in the final period.

Jessie Davidson led the Eagles with six points midway through the quarter to cut the Braves’ lead to 49-42. Brenna Oeffinger scored on a putback at 3:25, and after Brownstown took some time off the clock, Davidson stole the ball, drove in and was fouled and made both free throws for a 49-46 score with two minutes to go.

Brownstown then had back-to-back turnovers before Austin turned the ball over. After the Braves missed the front end of a one-and-one with 56 seconds to go, the Eagles got the rebound and called a timeout, but Kamry Howard missed a shot and Oeffinger was called for her fourth foul.

The Braves missed another free throw, and Davidson drove in the lane for a score with 5.6 seconds on the clock. Following a timeout, the Braves were fouled and missed two more free throws, but Kourtney Settle grabbed the offensive rebound to end the game.

“We need to play a full game,” said Settle, a senior who scored nine points. “We have highs and lows, and we just need to learn to play a full game of highs.”

Neither Settle nor coach Karla Rieckers wanted to lose the game after leading by as many as 20 points.

“We had a big lead, and then those turnovers killed us. We just need to learn to work the ball more and not throw it away so many times,” Settle said, as the team finished with 28 turnovers. But, she added, “We never quit. We always just keep going until the end.”

Even though the team shot 2 of 9 from the floor, went 1 of 6 from the free-throw line, had five turnovers and only scored five points in the fourth quarter, the Braves still pulled it out.

“We’ve had a lot of games that have been up-and-down for us, and we kind of weathered the storm,” Rieckers said. “We missed some free throws that would have put the game away for us that we needed to make, and (the Eagles) made a lot of free throws to their credit (6 of 8 in fourth).

“It was talked about that we had worked too hard to just give this game away, and it’s going to come down to who wants it more and who is willing to do whatever it takes to get the win,” she added, “and I’m just glad we were able to do that.”

Maria Allen and Hailey Brown double-teamed Austin in the backcourt for a steal and layup by Brown for a 9-1 lead in the first quarter, and Settle’s basket at 27 seconds made it 17-7.

The Braves turned the ball over eight times in the first quarter, and the Eagles’ press caused three straight turnovers to open the second quarter. That resulted in Austin scoring the first six points, and the Eagles forced back-to-back turnovers three minutes into the period for two more points, cutting the deficit to 19-15.

The Eagles pulled within two at 3:31, but the Braves closed the half on a 10-2 run for a 31-21 lead.

More than five minutes into the second half, Kaylee Bennett assisted Brown on a 3 to give Brownstown a 41-21 lead. Austin, however, cut it down to 13 going into the fourth quarter.

“(Austin coach Jared Petersen) came out with the 1-3-1 trap, and when we set it up to break it right, things went OK,” Rieckers said. “But when we panicked, that’s when they caused some turnovers and we just weren’t making the right decisions and we kind of looked around and wanted somebody else to handle the ball.”

That comes down to confidence, she said.

“Each person needs to have confidence in themselves that they can handle the ball,” Rieckers said. “And once you get that (press) broke, you need to make sure you attack the basket, as well, and we kind of got to standing around a little bit instead of attacking and taking the kinds of shots that we need to against a 1-3-1.”

Brown led the Braves with 12 points and Allen had 10, while Bennett had a team-high 10 rebounds.

Davidson finished with a game-high 18 points, including eight from the foul line, and Howard had a double-double of 10 points and 12 rebounds. The Eagles fell to 3-4 overall and 1-3 in the MSC.

At Austin

Brownstown 17 14 14 5—50

Brownstown Central (4-2): Maria Allen 5-11 0-4 10, Hailey Brown 4-8 2-2 12, Kaylee Bennett 1-14 3-4 5, Jenna Hackman 2-5 2-2 6, Kaley Wilkerson 1-7 1-2 3, Kourtney Settle 2-7 5-6 9, Trinity Booher 1-3 0-2 3, Presley Dmitriev 0-2 2-2 2, Brooke Ebbing 0-1 0-0 0, Kasandra Rieckers 0-0 0-0 0, totals 16-58 15-24 50

Austin (3-4): Megan Smith 1-5 2-2 4, Krystal Napier 0-1 2-3 2, Jessie Davidson 5-18 8-10 18, Kamry Howard 2-11 6-9 10, Brenna Oeffinger 2-5 2-3 6, Kaitlin Embrey 1-9 0-0 3, Kourtney Mace 1-3 0-0 2, Mikaela Clark 1-2 0-0 3, Brenna Riley 0-0 0-0 0, totals 13-54 20-27 48

3-point goals: Brownstown Central (Brown 2, Booher), Austin (Embrey, Clark)

Rebounds: Brownstown Central 49 (Bennett 10, Wilkerson 8, Allen 7), Austin 35 (Howard 12, Davidson 8, Oeffinger 6)

Turnovers: Brownstown Central 28, Austin 25

Junior varsity

Brownstown 9 15 9 6—39

Austin 16 7 3 7—33

Brownstown Central (6-0): Ebbing 10, Booher 6, Bailey Bonebright 5, Ally Lorenzo 4, Riley Wischmeier 4, Dmitriev 3, Olivia Goecker 3, Jaelyn Reynolds 3, Rieckers 1

SALEM — One steal and four deflections.

Brownstown Central girls basketball coach Karla Rieckers said she wrote those two statistics on the board at halftime of Thursday’s Mid-Southern Conference game at Salem. At that point, the Lady Braves had 11 turnovers and trailed 23-15.

“I wrote those two numbers on the board at halftime because I said, ‘That comes down to effort,’ and I didn’t feel like we gave a very good effort at all in the first half,” Rieckers said.

So going into the second half, Rieckers challenged her team to respond.

“I knew that we’re a better basketball team than that,” she said, “so the challenge was, ‘How are you going to handle that now that you’re down?’ And I really thought that they responded in the second half.”

With a couple of post players and a starting guard on the bench late in the first half because of foul trouble, senior Jenna Hackman took it upon herself to lead the team back into the game.

In the third quarter, she made four baskets and a free throw, and her fourth basket off of a steal and a save by Presley Dmitriev and an assist by Trinity Booher pulled the Braves within 32-31 with 1:15 left in the third quarter.

The Braves then outscored the Lions 21-13 in the fourth quarter for a 52-45 win.

“She said that we weren’t putting enough effort and we need to drive more…pretty much just pick up on everything,” Hackman said of Rieckers’ halftime message. “I kind of had to pick up the leadership role, I guess. I’m not usually a driver (to the basket), but that’s all I was trying to do, go to the basket and get the fouls called.”

In the first half, nothing seemed to be going right for Brownstown. The Braves missed a lot of shots from close range, and they finished the first quarter 5 of 16 from the field. They, however, managed to hold a 10-9 lead after one period of play.

Krista Baker’s field goal at 5:40 of the second quarter gave Salem its first lead of the night, but Kaylee Bennett’s free throw 23 seconds later tied the score. Morgan Hasty’s free throw a few seconds later, however, started Salem on an 11-4 run, and the Lions held a 23-15 lead at the break.

“We weren’t working the ball well, and we needed to make some defensive stops and we couldn’t get that,” Hackman said of the first half. “Nothing was going our way.”

So she decided to make a statement early in the second half.

She assisted Hailey Brown on a 3-pointer at 7:17 and Bennett made two free throws about a minute later, but then Hasty made a 3-pointer for Salem.

Hackman then converted a three-point play at 5:18 to pull within 26-23, and that started the Braves on a 9-0 run. Brown’s feed to Hackman at 3:37 gave Brownstown a 29-26 lead and forced Salem into a timeout.

The Lions then scored four straight points, including another 3 by Hasty. Hasty then scored on an inbounds play before Hackman’s fourth basket of the quarter at 1:15 pulled her team within 32-31.

Hackman’s jumper a minute into the fourth quarter tied the game at 33, and Booher’s nice drive to the basket 30 seconds later gave Brownstown a 35-33 edge.

After Kaley Wilkerson scored on her own miss at 6:02, Salem scored the next six points and held the lead until Booher made another nice move to the hoop at 2:55 to give her team a 43-41 lead, and the Braves held on from there.

“I was really pleased with the way Jenna came in,” Rieckers said of the second half. “She’s a senior, so she should be a leader on the floor, and she kind of took the team on her shoulders and said, ‘I want to make sure that we win this’ because she made the comment before halftime that she did not want to play a second half the way we played the first half.

“She certainly stepped out on the floor and showed that she wanted to make a difference in the ballgame and was the leader for us tonight, which we needed her to do,” Rieckers added.

Allen scored 12 of her game-high 16 points in the second half, including going 6 of 6 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. Hackman followed with 13 points.

Hasty was the only Lion in double figures, leading with 15 points.

Rieckers also realized it was a tough game for Salem because the school’s athletic director, Randy Johnson, died of a heart attack on Sunday. A moment of silence was held for him before the game, and the players wore “We play for Randy” T-shirts during warm-ups and gathered at midcourt after the game.

“They were certainly playing with heavy hearts and a lot of emotion with losing their athletic director, and we hate that that had to happen for them,” Rieckers said. “They wanted to win for their school and for their athletic director, so you give them credit, too, because it was a hard-fought game from the beginning to the end. We’re just really fortunate that we could pull it out.”

At Salem
Varsity

BROWNSTOWN — Brownstown Central’s Kaylee Bennett drove past the Seymour defense for a layup with two minutes remaining in Thursday’s county matchup to cut the Lady Owls’ lead to 44-42.

That brought a loud reaction from the home team’s fans.

The Braves’ offense, however, cooled off the remainder of the game when they were outscored 8-2, and Seymour went home with a 52-44 win on Cancer Awareness Night.

Seymour held a 35-32 lead entering the fourth period when Amanda Moore got hot and extended the Owls’ lead. The senior guard made two baskets in the first 1:20 of the period to make it a 39-32 game.

After Logan Personett added a free throw, Moore came up with a steal and layup to give Seymour its biggest lead of the night at 42-32 with 6:05 remaining.

Brownstown coach Karla Rieckers said her team could have given up at that point, but the Braves weren’t going down without a battle. Kaley Wilkerson and Bennett hit back-to-back field goals for a 42-36 game with 4:40 remaining.

After Brianna Gillaspy scored for Seymour to slow Brownstown’s momentum, Jenna Hackman drove for a basket, and when the Owls turned the ball over on their next two possessions, Hackman and Bennett scored for the Braves to cut the difference to 44-42 with two minutes remaining.

Gillaspy converted a three-point play, and after Brooke Ebbing added two free throws to complete Brownstown’s scoring with 54 seconds remaining, Personett and Moore added free throws in the final 50 seconds to close out the win for the Owls.

Moore scored a season-high 30 points.

“Amanda went straight on. That’s all I can say about her,” Owls coach Beth DeVinney said. “She’s a gamer. She’s wanted to win all week. She said that is her goal. She hadn’t lost to Brownstown in three years before tonight, and she willed us to win tonight. When we needed big shots, she took them. When we needed a post-up, she took it, and that is what she is capable of every single game. That is the kind of game she should be playing every single game.”

Moore said, “It’s a big game for us, and it’s a great atmosphere. I thought we struggled in the first half a lot. Everyone was nervous. But we came back in the second half and we were really focused and got the job done.”

Moore was 11 for 12 at the free-throw line.

“I’ve been working on them a lot, so I felt like I was really confident at the line,” she said. “I just wanted to be at the line. I wanted to be the one shooting free throws.”

Both teams started out cold, as the Braves shot 3 for 10 and the Owls 3 for 9 in the first period, resulting in a 9-9 tie going into the second quarter.

The Braves scored the final four points of the first period and the first six points of the second to lead 15-9 following a jump shot by Maria Allen at 6:50. Hailey Brown hit a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws and Wilkerson scored a pair of baskets inside to help the Braves lead 23-19 at the break.

Brown and Wilkerson led the Braves in the first half with eight and six points, respectively, while Moore and Gillaspy combined for all of Seymour’s points during that time.

“When you look at our team, we’re still learning,” Rieckers said. “This is our third game out. We kind of had some people stand around. We didn’t have the kind of leadership that I really thought that we needed to step up and handle the ball for a while.

“I didn’t think we had anybody that really wanted to handle it or attack the basket, and that was in part to Seymour’s press, but it’s also partly that we’re still learning and working and have to have those kids step up and not be afraid when there’s a press out there and not be afraid to attack the basket.”

The Owls made some changes on defense in the third period and forced the Braves into seven turnovers and 2 for 11 from the field. Moore stayed hot with six points, while Taylor Gossett added a layup and a pair of free throws and Hannah Carmichael, Personett and Nicole Hoene added baskets to help the Owls lead 35-32 going into the fourth period.

Seymour outscored Brownstown 33-21 in the second half.

“We changed up some things,” DeVinney said. “I think we got complacent in the first half. We ran a lot of ‘purple’ and some zone and we weren’t really into the game. We weren’t picking it up, and we talked at halftime and Randy (Fife, assistant coach) wanted to change some things and it was worth a try. We changed our press and went to something different and it made a big difference, and I think our level of intensity came up, too.”

Gillaspy added 10 points for the Owls, while Bennett was high for the Braves with 10 points.

“It’s a confidence thing, and with Bri, she’s such a good shooter and she needs to shoot the ball more. She comes off screens not looking because she likes to pass the ball, almost to a fault,” DeVinney said. “I thought Taylor Gossett came in and gave us some of the best minutes that she’s given us all season. When she’s able to sit for a minute at the beginning of the game and when she comes into the game, she is so much more focused and so much more ready to play, and her post game on the inside really helped us win the game.”

The Owls made 17 of 53 shots from the floor, while the Braves shot 15 for 46.

The rebounds were even at 25, with Bennett leading Brownstown with 11 and Personett leading Seymour with six.

“You have to get in the gaps, and obviously with Seymour’s size and length, you have to make good passes, and there were times when we didn’t make some of the best decisions,” Rieckers said. “But at the same time, when you’re down 10 and you come back, we could have quit right there and we didn’t. I’m proud of the fact that even though they did get down, they battled back and continued to work.”

CLARKSVILLE — In the final four minutes of the first half of Saturday night’s game at Providence, the Brownstown Central girls basketball team found its groove.

The Lady Braves scored six straight points and later went on a 9-3 run to take a double-digit lead at halftime, 29-18.

After turning the ball over nine times in the first quarter, Brownstown reverted back to that in the third quarter. But the Braves managed to pull ahead by as many as 21 in the fourth quarter before settling for a 56-41 victory.

“Coming out in the second quarter and being aggressive, we wanted to try to carry that over to the third quarter,” said Braves junior Kaylee Bennett, who collected a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds. “Our coach just told us to pick it up because in the first quarter, we came out slow.”

Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers yelled out for her team to attack the basket in the second quarter, and the girls got the message. Maria Allen drove in for two baskets, Bennett made a layup on a drive and Presley Dmitriev provided a spark off of the bench, banking in a shot and burying a 3-pointer.

“They left the lane wide open if you just drove to the basket,” Bennett said.

And by the Braves pushing the ball in the second quarter and throughout the second half, she said, “(The Pioneers) were getting tired at the end, and our conditioning that we have, we could pull it off. We can just keep pushing the ball, and we have enough subs to where we can just keep subbing people in and out.”

The start of the game, though, wasn’t pretty for either team.

The Braves and Pioneers combined for 16 turnovers and 6-of-21 shooting from the field. Bennett’s transition bucket at 3:14 gave the Braves an 8-6 lead, but Mary Graf’s drive to the basket at 1:43 tied the game, and that score held at the end of one.

“We had nine in the first quarter,” Rieckers said of her team’s turnovers. “I didn’t feel like they were really forced turnovers. I think they were things like we traveled, we made bad passes or tried to force some things that weren’t there.”

She told the girls to take care of the ball and attack the basket, and they did those things in the second quarter.

The Braves didn’t have a turnover until 3:48, and Allen’s third basket of the quarter right before gave Brownstown a 19-14 advantage. Two minutes later, Dmitriev’s five straight points made it a 12-point game. After a Providence free throw, Bennett drove in for a score at 35 seconds for a 29-16 score, and Mackenzie Wilson’s free throws at 15 seconds made it an 11-point game at halftime.

“When you have good ball movement, people are going to be open,” Rieckers said. “I felt like in the second quarter, we did a better job of that.”

On the first possession of the second half, though, the Braves were careless with the ball and Leah White stole it and made a layup, pulling the Pioneers within nine.

The Braves then scored six straight points, two each from Allen, Hailey Brown and Kourtney Settle, for a 35-20 score. Brownstown had nine turnovers in the quarter but never gave up its double-digit lead and took a 42-30 lead into the fourth.

Brownstown scored the first four points of the fourth, and the lead ballooned to 53-32 at 3:19 on Bennett’s feed to Allen.

Allen led all scorers with 15 points, and Bennett was the only other Brave in double figures.

White led the Pioneers with 12 points, while Graf had nine points and 10 boards.

A big stat for Brownstown was winning rebounding 49-30, but the Braves had 21 turnovers to the Pioneers’ 17 and were 9 of 22 from the foul line compared to 16 of 27 for Providence.

“In the first quarter, we got a little frustrated. A few easy shots didn’t fall for us, and then we get a little tense and things don’t seem to fall quite as well as we want them to,” Rieckers said. “And I think that just kind of carried out throughout the game.”

Some foul trouble, a week since their last game and a holiday break were other factors, but it was only the second game of the season and Rieckers said the team has to move on and focus on the next game, which is on Thursday at home against county rival Seymour.

Lady Braves begin season with win over Bluejackets

The Braves, however, began like they were the ones with games under their belt. They stormed out to an 8-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back in claiming a 56-34 victory.

“It’s nice from our standpoint as we seem to get a later start than everyone else with the success of our fall sports programs,” Lady Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “This was Mitchell’s fourth game and our first, so it is always a concern when we come in to play like this.”

Brownstown’s defense showed up early and stayed solid.

“We really focused on defense, and defensively we did a nice job against them,” Rieckers said. “There are a few things we need to work on, but some typical first-game errors that we make. We have to learn to play together as we lost some good seniors last year and have some adjusting to do. I think we have some players that can fill those shoes.”

Kaley Wilkerson got the Braves on the board with the first two points of the game. Maria Allen then had back-to-back baskets and Wilkerson scored at 5:46 for an 8-0 lead. Mitchell’s Alyssa Gardner scored her team’s first two points, but Brownstown’s Hailey Brown knocked down a 3-pointer and Allen had a steal and a layup to make it 13-2.

The Braves held a 19-7 lead and forced the Bluejackets to turn the ball over nine times in the first quarter. Mitchell finished the game with 18 turnovers, while Brownstown tallied 14 for the game.

The Braves’ lead ballooned to 19 points in the second quarter at 34-15 when Brown hit two free throws, but Mitchell’s Kenzie Pruett had a field goal to make it 34-17 at half.

“Defense is something we have been working on with the emphasis on defense and the rebounding part,” Rieckers said. “We felt like last year in the state finals game, there was a span where it turned around a six-point difference because we didn’t get some blockouts and rebounds we needed. We have been working on that in practice.”

Another key for the Braves was the fast start, and Rieckers was glad to see it.

“I think that was big,” she said. “I think any time you can set the tempo, and we like to play a fast-paced game, and when you can play like that, it plays into your hands. That was one of the things we wanted to do.”

The third quarter was a slow one, as the Bluejackets outscored the Braves 9-7 and both teams went a combined 5 of 17 from the floor.

In the fourth quarter, though, the Braves went on a 7-0 run to make it 48-26. Brown and Jenna Hackman had four free throws and Allen converted an old-fashioned three-point play.

Pruett led the Bluejackets with 12 points, but she was the only player for the home team to score in double figures.

“They have some players who are hurt for them, and obviously Courtney Perkins didn’t play tonight and she has a stress fracture in her back and Mia Burton is also hurt as she has a stress fracture in her foot,” Rieckers said. “They are going through some difficult times right now, and we thought with some of their inexperience, we wanted to play on that.”

Besides those two players, the Bluejackets had two other players go out with concussion-like symptoms.

Allen and Brown scored 14 and 13 points respectively to lead the Braves, while Kaylee Bennett had nine points and nine rebounds.

“It’s a good win for us and a nice way to start our season,” Rieckers said. “We have to learn from our errors and correct some things and just keep working.”