ELNORA

Brownstown Central’s boys basketball team battled Fort Wayne Blackhawk on nearly even terms through the first 20 minutes of Thursday’s game in the Old National Bank Holiday Classic at North Daviess High School.

Blackhawk was leading 29-25 midway through the third period, then went on an 11-0 run over the next seven minutes to take a 40-25 lead.

That was too much for Brownstown to overcome, as the defending tournament champions won 46-33.

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery

“We started turning the ball over, and we started taking bad shots and rushed shots,’ Braves coach Dave Benter said. “Up to that point, we had been real disciplined, we had taken care of the ball.

“We missed some opportunities to score, but we had gotten the ball in scoring position. We defended them well, and we turned it into a half-court game. Once we turned the ball over and took questionable shots, their scorers got out, and we had a hard time getting back and stopping them.”

Blackhawk held a 26-18 lead at the half and was on top 29-20 before Ethan Wischmeier hit a 3-pointer and Isaac Johnson scored a layup on BC’s next possession, and it was 29-25 with 4:20 left in the third period.

Blackhawk held a 35-25 lead going into the fourth period and increased its lead to 40-29 before Wischmeier hit his third 3-pointer of the night for a 40-28 score with 5:22 left in the game.

They then took the biggest lead of the night at 46-28 with 2:15 remaining.

Brownstown, behind Braden Neal’s shooting, outscored Blackhawk 13-12 in the second period. Neal had two 3-pointers and a deuce and made both of his free throws in the second period for 10 points.

Neal finished with 12 points, all in the first half, and had five rebounds. Wischmeier scored nine points and topped the Braves with six rebounds.

Blackhawk, which came into the tournament leading the state in scoring at 84 points per game, was led in scoring by 6-foot-6 Frank Davidson with 21 points to go along with 11 rebounds.

Caleb Furst, a 6-10 sophomore, scored only seven points but had 10 rebounds to help his team outrebound Brownstown 31-23.

Brownstown shot 7-for-17 from 3-point land and was 12-for-42 overall for the game.

Benter said Davidson and Furst make Blackhawk difficult to defend.

“You add (Zane) Burke and the other (Marcus) Davidson, and all of a sudden, you’ve got a lot of scorers on the floor with a lot of size, guys that can score in multiple ways," he said.

“It’s tough. You’ve got to pick your poison. I thought through the first two and one-half quarters, we did a really good job of guarding them and helping out when we needed to in recovering. I thought our guys were really alert and focused and locked in defensively. Our defensive issues were more of an offensive issue once we started turning the ball over and taking bad shots."

Blackhawk, ranked No. 1 in Class A, was without two starters when it lost to Indianapolis Manual last week.

Brownstown (6-1) will face Loogootee at 3 p.m. today.

“Our discipline has got to get better offensively," Benter said. “We’ve got to secure and prize the ball more and not turn it over, and we’ve got to take better shots.”