BROWNSTOWN
Brownstown Central boys basketball coach Dave Benter has lauded his offense these past several games.
Ever since their 36-point effort against Jennings County — their second lowest output of the season — the Braves have scored more than 50 points in three straight games.
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On Tuesday night against Mid-Southern Conference rival Austin, the Braves struggled to get started, but once it did they drilled the Eagles to win 52-36 for their fourth game in a row hitting the half-century mark.
The offense was really cooking for the Braves in the second half where they started on a 13-2 run to put the game to bed.
Benter explains his team’s ball movement has been much better and that’s been leading to more points.
“We’ve changed our lineup a little bit, but even the guys that are in there are just moving the ball around better,” Benter said. “We’ve made some shots, but I just attribute a lot of that to our ball handling. Our guys are moving the basketball into the middle … and it’s just so much easier to play with the ball goes into the middle.”
The Braves found particular success early on with some lob action, usually from senior Isaiah Wineinger, to a cutting forward for an easy two points.
“They only had two guys down low and we would have three guys on the baseline,” Benter explained. “We could stretch them out a little bit and get the ball into Aidan, and he’s got good length and our guards did a good job of getting him the ball tonight.”
Wineinger didn’t light up the scoring sheet, tallying just seven points with four of those coming from the free-throw line, but his presence was felt in just about every other statistical category.
He had a team-high 12 rebounds, team-best eight assists and a team-high two steals.
Benter explained Wineinger can have a big impact on the game even if he’s not scoring points.
“He’s always been more of a facilitator,” Benter said. “He’s been an energy guy, an assist guy, a rebound guy, a defensive guy, and him having to score the ball so much for us this year is a little bit different than what’s he used to doing.”
The victory gives the Braves their first Mid-Southern Conference win of the season after a few close calls early on.
Victories have been a little hard to come by for this edition of Brave basketball and Benter hopes this might serve as a turning point as they head into the final month of the regular season.
“We’ve come such a long way since Jennings County offensively,” Benter said. “Hopefully our understanding gets better as we keep going and our ball movement stays where it’s at.”
Derek Thompson led the Braves with 14 points while Aidan Schroer added 10 as the only other double-digit scorer for the Braves. Schroer fell just a rebound short of a double-double, grabbing five of his nine boards off the offensive glass.
Lucas McKinney added six, Eli Brown and Lucas Hines each had four, Nathan Koch and Clay Chastain scored three each, and Keirnan Tiemeyer hit a free throw to round out the Braves’ scoring.
In junior varsity action, the Braves outscored the Eagles 41-15 in the second half to cruise to a 67-37 win.
Three Brave players scored in double figures with Kiernan Tiemeyer leading the charge with 14. Both Brady Waskom and Sam Schepman scored 13.
Ethan Davis, Trapper Dean, Levi Stahl and Eli Wischmeier all added five, while Brandon Reynolds chipped in three. Brady Waskom and Carson Darlage rounded out the scoring with two each.
The Braves play their second MSC game this week on Friday against Charlestown. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in Charlestown.