BROWNSTOWN
Before Friday’s game against Mitchell, Brownstown Central girls basketball coach Karla Rieckers talked to her team about getting off to a good start.
The Braves took Rieckers’ words to heart by leading 9-0 in less than four minutes, 16-4 at the end of the first period and rolled to a 66-31 win.
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“The start is one thing we wanted to focus on,” Rieckers said. “We really thought, like the Trinity game, we had a good start that game. That’s something we really want to focus on, coming out ready to go and to try and get a jump on our opponent.”
After a pair of free throws by Halle Hehman put the Braves up 2-0 at 6:38, Tayler Garland got hot with 11 points in the first period. She hit a 3-pointer from the right corner, and was fouled on the play and added the freebie for a 4-point play and a 6-0 lead.
Katherine Benter scored on a move to the basket and Ashley Schroer’s free throw set the score 9-0 at the 54:14-mrk
After Macy Robbins made a layup for the Jackets’ first points at 3:10, Garland made another 3-pointer, and followed with a jump shot and lay up to stretch the lead to 16-2.
The visitors outscored the Braves 9-4 the first four minutes of the second period before BC received two baskets from Payton Farmer, seven points from Garland and a jumper from Zoe Fountain to build its lead to 33-14 at the half.
The Braves opened the second half on a 10-0 run with Hehman scoring two baskets during that run, and Farmer’s basket off an offensive rebound completed the rally for a 43-14 lead halfway through the period.
“That’s one of the things we talked about as well,” Rieckers said about increasing the lead. “We’ve had some games this year where we’ve had some leads and we’ve given up a lot of points. Against Corydon we gave up 22 points in the fourth quarter, and against Paoli we gave up 17 points in the fourth quarter.
“We wanted to focus on trying to contain and play a whole game.”
Garland finished with four 3-pointers and led all players with 23 points, Hehman added 11 points, and Schroer pulled down eight rebounds to help the Braves to a 30-18 advantage on the boards.
Rieckers liked how effective BC’s press was with several of Mitchell’s 23 turnovers caused by the press.
“We’ve ran (the press) before,” she said. “It’s kind of like our half-court trap. I thought in the past when we ran it we weren’t near as aggressive as what we were tonight. We walked about wanting to be more aggressive, and we wanted to try to cause the turnovers and that kind of stuff, and I really thought the girls responded.
“I thought the first couple times we let them kind of dictate what they wanted to do, but after we made a few adjustments I thought our press was effective.”
The Braves (4-1) have won four straight and Rieckers said she is pleased with the way the team has improved.
“We put in some new offense and at times they kind of question each other and that kind of stuff,” Rieckers said. “They said ‘It’s not going to work,’ and we said it’s not something you’re going to get overnight. Hopefully we’ll continue to improve.”
Robbins topped Mitchell (1-5) with 10 points.
The Braves will host Henryville tonight for another non-conference game.