BROWNSTOWN
Visiting Bedford North Lawrence scored the first six points of the game and never looked back, defeating Brownstown Central 47-39 in a non-conference tilt on Friday night.
The Braves played well at points, whittling the deficit to single digits after three quarters, but the Braves’ chief concern reared its ugly head again on Friday.
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That concern being consistency.
While the Braves have had plenty of good moments this season, they’ve struggled to string positive games together. Friday night against the Stars was another game where the Braves grappled with finding a rhythm.
“We’ve got to figure out that we need to play hard every possession and we got to find five guys that can do that,” Brownstown Central coach Dave Benter said. “We just struggled at different stretches in games throughout the year.
“Since the beginning of the year I think we have come along way; we had good stretches.”
The Braves committed five turnovers in the first period and managed to get off only four shots from the floor to trail 11-5.
The Stars (14-8) took advantage of the Braves’ slow start to take a 6-0 lead. Aidan Schroer finally scored for the Braves with 2:16 on the clock.
BC’s only other points in the first period came on a 3-pointer by Clay Chastain with one minute left in the opening period.
BNL held a 13-7 lead in the second period before Brayton Bailey hit two free throws and Kooper Staley followed with a basket to extend the advantage to 17-7.
The teams traded points the remainder of the first half with Schroer scoring two baskets in the final 1:30 to spark the Braves.
BNL lead 23-13 at the half.
Brownstown shot 4-for-8 in the second period and 6-for-12 in the half, while BNL made 9 of 19 from the floor.
The Stars, behind two baskets from Bailey, increased their lead to 27-13 in the first 1:18 of the third quarter.
The Braves sparked by three 3-pointers from Clay Chastain cut their deficient to 34-27 at the end of the quarter.
Isaiah Wineinger topped the Braves (6-13) with 14 points, Chastain scored 12, Schroer added seven, while Derek Thompson, Carter Waskom, and Lucas Hines scored two each.
BNL, winners of seven straight, was led by Bailey with 27.
The Stars held a 34-27 lead going into the fourth quarter, and in that period the Stars take the ball out of bounds under the BC basket and pass the ball long to Bailey who drove for layups and was fouled.
He made 5 of 7 free throws in the fourth quarter.
“They’ve got a great player that’s hard to guard,” Benter said. “We had our backs against the wall and had to gamble, and they’re not a team you want to do that against. Bailey is just a tough guard to play against.”
The Stars shot 17-for-39 while the Braves were 15-for-31. BNL held a 16-14 advantage in rebounds. Thompson was high for the Braves with six.
Brownstown won the junior varsity in three overtimes 53-49.
Kiernan Tiemeyer topped the Braves with 20 points, Ethan Davis scored 11 points, Eli Wischmeier with seven, Levi Stahl and Carson Darlage with four each, Brandon Reynolds with three, and Carter Waskom and Lucas McKinney with two each.
The Braves will travel to Floyd Central Tuesday night.