NEW ALBANY
Traveling south to New Albany, the Brownstown Central girls’ basketball team stuck to what they do well on the offensive end –– feed the post. And when the post may have been clogged, have the vision to kick it out for open perimeter tries.
Although the Lady Braves struggled in the opening stanza in regards to putting the ball in the hoop, the continued discipline to look inside at the right moments led to big nights from forwards Ashley Schroer and Katherine Benter. The duo combined for 46 points, leading to a 66-55 road win over New Albany Friday night.
“We got going a little bit in the second (quarter),” said Brownstown Central coach Brandon Allman. “I thought in the third and fourth quarter we were much better. We were more patient when we got the ball inside. The girls were taking their time. If they weren’t able to score inside, they were able to kick out for 3s. When we get the ball inside, we’re a pretty good basketball team.”
Schroer and Benter didn’t seem destined for scoring nights of 24 and 22 points, respectively, after a silent first quarter. A barrage of New Albany miscues in the second quarter led to Brownstown Central taking the lead after trailing by six in the early going.
Three-point plays aided Brownstown Central in the second quarter. After Benter converted a 3-point play, Schroer drew a foul attempting a corner pocket triple, eventually making two freebies. Consecutive steals by the Lady Braves led to a trey from Benter, then a pair of free throws from Schroer.
“Katherine Benter had 12 rebounds and played really well,” said Allman. “She can handle the ball and didn’t have any turnovers. She was one that struggled early scoring, so I challenged her. From there, her and Ashley were tough to handle inside.”
Halle Hehman slipped a nifty pass to a cutting Avery Koch late in the opening half for a basket inside, putting Brownsotwn Central up 25-18.
New Albany closed the gap to three after a Mya Jackson free-throw line jumper. But, it was Benter’s relentlessness on the glass leading to her drawing a foul after grabbing an offensive board as time nearly expired. Her two free throws up Brownstown Central up 27-22 at half.
Plenty of damage was done at the charity stripe as well, with Brownstown Central going 21-of-26.
To start the contest, Brownstown Central didn’t fare well from the floor, shooting 4-of-12 in the opening quarter. Allman said it was more of a match-up issue. The Bulldogs were playing without 6-foot-2 post player Naria Reed, thus giving them a more perimeter look.
“I don’t think we were flat, I thought we had trouble matching up early,” he said. “(New Albany) got some easy buckets on us in transition. We got the basketball where we wanted to offensively, we just didn’t finish early. We weren’t reading what the defense was giving us.”
Brownstown Central was more crisp in the second half, plus had to fend off a few New Albany runs. Maddy Hackman, who had two much need 3-pointers in the opening quarter for the Lady Braves, netted two more in the second half. She’d close with 12 points.
Hackman’s triple in the fourth quarter gave her team it’s largest lead at 13, 58-45.
The win moved Brownstown Central to 14-2 while New Albany dropped to 4-10. Of the four wins for the Bulldogs, three have come against the Mid-Southern Conference’s Eastern (Pekin), North Harrison and Scottsburg.
“Anytime you see a Hoosier Hills Conference team and get a win, that’s big,” said Allman. “They’ve beaten some of the good teams in our conference.”