BROWNSTOWN
Indian Creek held a 40-33 lead going into the fourth quarter and remained ahead for a 59-54 road win against Brownstown Central on Friday night.
The host Braves made it interesting late thanks to an Isaiah Wineinger 3-point basket with 8.1 seconds remaining to cut Indian Creek’s lead to 55-54.
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Indian Creek’s Javon Crouch responded by making free throws with 5.9 seconds remaining to extend the lead back to three. The host Braves fumbled the inbound pass, and Indian Creek corralled and forced a BC foul. They went up to the line to sink two more freebies to ice the game.
A 12-point run by Indian Creek to end the third quarter helped put them in front for good. They then scored the first four points of the final period to extend their lead and further put pressure on Brownstown Central. BC had the lead with three minutes to go in the third after a basket from Aiden Schroer.
Clay Chastain finally broke Brownstown’s scoreless spell with a 3-pointer with 6:24 remaining.
“The difference was their huge run in the third and fourth quarters,” Brownstown Central coach Dave Benter said. “We quit making shots, and we gave them some wide-open shots, and they weren’t missing those shots.
“I thought we lost our sense of urgency, and you can’t do that against a good team,” he continued. “They are the kind of basketball team you can’t do that on. They’ve got a lot of different guys that can score, they’ve got length in every position and they are very athletic. I thought we lost our focus for a seven- or eight-minute stretch. We’re not a good enough basketball team to let our guard down.”
Brownstown Central, sparked by five points from Chastain and 3-point plays by Schroer and Lucas Hines, held a 14-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The teams traded points in the second period with Creek holding a 12-11 advantage, resulting in a 25-20 lead for the home team at the half.
Chastain hit two 3-pointers in the first five minutes of the second period to help Brownstown expand its lead to 21-12 before Ethan Williams made two 3-pointers for Indian Creek in the final two minutes of the half.
Seven turnovers in the first period hurt the host Braves. They had 10 turnovers in the half and shot 9-for-20 from the field, while Indian Creek shot 8-for-21 and had six turnovers.
Chastain topped Brownstown scoring with 18 points, Wineinger had 15, Schroer scored seven, Lucas Hines and Lucas McKinney scored four each, Nathan Koch added three, Carter Waskom had two and Derek Thompson added one.
Indian Creek was led by Williams with 17 points and Mason Britt with 11 points.
Chastain had six 3-pointers and Williams had five 3s for Indian Creek.
Despite the loss, Benter is still feeling positive about the way his offense is producing of late.
“The good news is out of the last 10 quarters, we’ve played nine good quarters, but we’ve got to make sure we take care of the basketball,” Benter explained. “I thought in the first half, we got almost every 50-50 ball, and then in the third quarter when they made their big run, we lost our way a little bit.”
Brownstown (3-10) will host Austin on Tuesday night.
Brownstown Central won the junior varsity game 62-29. Sam Schepman scored 15, Levi Stahl scored 11, Brady Waskom and Carson Darlage had eight each, Kiernan Tiemeyer had seven, Ethan Davis added six, Brandon Reynolds and Ethan Fultz had three each and Carter Waskom added one.