BROWNSTOWN
There’s a log jam at the top of the Mid-Southern Conference.
With Brownstown Central’s 64-57 overtime loss to Class 3A No. 5 Silver Creek, there are four teams with one MSC loss still vying for the league title.
A Maddy Hackman 3-pointer to close the third quarter gave the Braves their first lead of the game and they were ahead by as many as four with less than two minutes to play. Silver Creek cut the lead back to one and matched a Katherine Benter 3-pointer with one of their own and then raised the stakes to tie the game at 53 to send it to overtime. The Dragons then held BC to just one point in the OT period until Hackman banked in a 3-pointer at the final buzzer.
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It’s BC’s first loss to the Dragons since Dec. 15, 2012.
While it’s the first league loss of the year for the Braves, they’re not hanging their heads. Considering they were down by as many as 13 points in the first quarter, they showed a lot of fight to be able to battle toe-to-toe with one of the better teams in their class.
"It shows a lot of our character," Brownstown Central coach Brandon Allman said. "Against a really good basketball team, we just can’t dig ourselves that type of hole. I thought we made a lot of really nice adjustments, especially in the second half."
Allman admitted his team has put themselves at a disadvantage before, pointing out the Seymour game specifically, and that they have to do a better job of competing from the jump.
Early on, the Dragons’ speed really flummoxed the Braves.
Forcing the Braves into turnovers, running down loose balls and snagging rebounds before the Braves could find the ball allowed the Dragons to build their early lead.
BC quickly turned to a 2-3 zone to help keep the Dragons out the lane and away from the basketball. It worked to perfection as they began their slow climb back, getting the deficit down to four at the break.
"All of their girls are faster than ours until I bring Zoe Fountain off the bench," Allman said. "Our girls made some big adjustments and we were able to keep them out of the lane more."
On the other end, the Braves did a tremendous job of driving the lane, drawing fouls and knocking down shots.
"Our girls did a great job of getting into the lane and being able to finish and I’m just super proud of the girls for battling back," Allman continued.
One of those girls that did it better than anyone else on the floor Saturday afternoon was Benter.
Leading all scorers with 29 points, the junior guard seemed to score whenever she touched the ball. She came up with big shot after big shot and tried to will the Braves to victory with her play.
She scored 17 of her total in the second half alone.
Benter had a lot of great help, most notably from senior forward Halle Hehman.
After a slow start to the season, Hehman seems to be coming into her own according to Allman. After a state championship volleyball season, Allman knew it was going to take a handful of games before she got back into basketball shape.
"She’s finally getting her legs back from volleyball," he said. "She’s getting some confidence back offensively and defensively. We got sucked in a couple of times with our zone, but she came up with some huge blocks for us. She was tremendous and made a lot of big plays for us."
Hehman finished with 10 points and had four big blocks for the Braves.
Rounding out the scoring for the Braves: Hackman scored nine — all coming from the 3-point line — Ashley Schroer chipped in seven and Zoe Fountain had two.
Though the loss drops them to the rest of the lead pack, Allman told his girls not hang their heads. For a group that wasn’t given much of a shot to compete for MSC championship, they still have a chance to win it outright.
"We control our destiny for, if nothing else, at least a share of the conference title," Allman said. "No one gave us a shot at the beginning of this year. It was all Silver Creek and Salem; us and North Harrison have a chance to play spoiler a little bit."
The Braves last won the MSC outright in 2015. They shared the title with Scottsburg in 2014.
As if one overtime wasn’t enough, the junior varsity game went to double OT as the Braves pulled out a 55-51 win over the Dragons.
Andrea Bair scored 15 to lead the Braves and was followed in scoring by Kelsey Wischmeier, who had 12. Madison Stuckwisch had nine, Hannah Stahl and Kalee Borden each had eight, and Camryn Thompson had three.
The Braves are off until next Friday when they start group play in the Toby Yoho Classic at Eastern Greene High School.
BC faces North Daviess at 1 p.m. before turning around to take on the host Thunderbirds at 4:30 p.m.