BROWSNTOWN
Madison Engleman was in the right place at the right time for the Corydon Central girls’ basketball team Saturday night.
The Panthers had the ball out of bounds in front of their bench with 4.3 seconds on the clock.
A teammate passed the ball into Engleman at the top of the key and she took one dribble and put up a shot. The ball was in the air as the buzzer sounded and it swished through the net to give the Panthers a 46-44 win in the Mid-Southern Conference.
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Time was called by the Panthers with 12 seconds remaining and Braves coach Karla Rieckers said she told her team to make Corydon shoot from the outside.
“That’s what we wanted to do," she said. "It didn’t necessarily come down to that play, although it looks like it did. The third quarter we gave up two points and in the fourth quarter we gave up 22 and you can’t go from one extreme to the next, and that’s really what happened.”
The Braves held a 23-22 lead at the half, and sparked by Katherine Benter’s 3-pointer, and a 2-pointer by Zoe Fountain outscored the Panthers 8-2 in the third period to extend its lead to 31-24 going into the fourth period.
A basket by Payton Farmer kept the Braves in front 33-26 with 6:50 remaining before three different Panthers made 3-pointers over the next 90 seconds, and Lillian Wolfe’s shot from outside the arc gave her team a 35-33 lead with 4:50 remaining.
The Braves shot 2-for-8 in the fourth period and didn’t score again from the field until Benter’s rebound basket with 43 seconds remaining tied the score at 44-44.
The Braves made 9 of 13 free throws in the fourth period and 12 of 20 for the game, while the Panthers were 7 for 12 in the fourth after not shooting a free throw in the first three quarters.
Tayler Garland and Halle Hehman made 3-pointers for the Braves in the first period, but the visitors held a 12-10 lead going into the second period.
Claire Poulton added a 3-pointer in the second period, and five other BC players each scored a basket to help the home team hold a 23-22 lead at the half.
Nine different girls saw action for the Braves in the first half. Rieckers said, “I never thought that we ever really got into a flow like the way we played over the summer. I thought we were second-guessing a lot of things tonight. We weren’t quite as confident as we should be, and we were 12 for 20 from the free throw line and that never helps.
“I think our depth will pay off in the future. I’ve got a few kids up from JV from last year. Our point guard (Katherine Benter) is a sophomore and she is up from JV. There was a little bit of question in their minds. I couldn’t tell you how many questions they have asked me in recent practices, it’s probably thousands. ‘Should I do this? should I do that?’ We’ll get there. ”
Cami Schmitt scored 10 points for Corydon in the fourth quarter, and topped all players with 17 points. She was 3-for-3 from the floor, including a 3-pointer, and 3 for 6 from the line, in the fourth.
Corydon made 7 3-pointers for the game and the Braves had 4 3-pointers.
Rieckers said, “We kind of thought (Schmitt) or 22 (Engleman) is who they would be going to in the fourth quarter. They have a nice team so you can’t take anything away from them. We played good defense and (Engleman) knocked down a tough shot.”
Ashley Schroer topped the Braves in scoring with 11 points, and tied Farmer for BC rebounds with seven. Brownstown held a 27-22 advantage in rebounds.
The Braves were 14-for-42 from the floor for the game. Rieckers said, “Offensively I thought we had some good looks that didn’t fall. I thought that we had a lot of shots that seemed to go in and out, didn’t go down when we needed them to.
“We’ll come back and we’ll keep working and hopefully we’ll improve. At times there were some bright spots and at times they exposed some weaknesses, some things we need to work on.”
The Braves will play at New Albany Thursday night.