GREENCASTLE
Bishop Chatard used a fast start and a strong finish to deny Brownstown Central its second straight Greencastle Class 3A regional championship by defeating the Braves 53-47 on Saturday afternoon.
The Braves started out colder than the sub-freezing temperature outside the McAnally Center by missing their first nine shots of the game and turned the ball over twice during that time, enabling the Trojans to jump on top 9-0 after five minutes of play.
“I knew Chatard was going to come out jacked up and ready to play,” Braves coach Brandon Allman said. “They did the same thing in their sectional championship game against Heritage Christian, which is of course a big rival for them. That start was a little uncharacteristic of us. We lost some assignments there. We had some breakdowns from our scouting report.”
The Braves shot 3-for-14 from the floor in the first period, compared to 5-for-9 by the Trojans, including three 3-pointers made.
“They hit some shots, and we missed some shots,” Allman said. “That’s part of basketball. I told my team right before they went out it’s a game of runs and they’re going to make a run of eight, 10 points. We’ve just got to be able to weather the storm.
“You can’t control your shots going in, especially from long range. (Missed layups) were big. Those are shots you can’t miss. That’s just focus and putting it up on the backboard and putting it in.”
Katherine Benter finally lit up Brownstown’s side of the scoreboard with a basket at 2:26, and her first 3 of the game cut the difference to 11-7 at 1:25.
The Braves had trouble staying with Chatard’s Zakia Rasheed in the first half. Her third 3-pointer of the opening quarter put the Trojans on top 14-7 heading into the second.
Brownstown finished shooting 3-for-14 in the first period and was 17-47 for the game. The Braves made only six 2-point baskets for the game but did hit 11 from behind the arc.
Maddy Hackman and Emma Klinge drilled 3s in the second period, and a free throw by Avery Koch cut Chatard’s lead to 26-17, but Moira McGinley nailed a 3 in the closing seconds to give Chatard the momentum going into the half.
“I told them its 12 points (behind),” Allman said, “but the way we were able to score the basketball at times, we’re not out of the basketball game. We just have to claw. It’s not going to come back in one possession. We just battled and battled.”
Chatard held a 29-17 lead at the half before Allman’s halftime talk got the Braves fired up and they played their best span of ball of the day by outscoring the Trojans 13-2 the first 4 minutes of the third period to trail 31-30.
Benter opened BC’s scoring at the start of the third period with a 3-pointer, and Klinge and Kalee Borden followed with 3-pointers. Koch and Benter drove for layups to make it a 31-30 game with 4:10 remaining.
Hannah Stahl followed with another 3 late in the period to cut Chatard’s lead to 41-38 entering the fourth period.
Hackman and Benter dropped in 3-pointers during the first four minutes of the fourth period to leave the Braves trailing 45-44.
Brownstown had a chance to take the lead in its next possession but missed a shot, and Chatard went on a 5-0 run to lead 50-45 with 1:33 remaining.
Hackman added another 3 with under a minute remaining, but that was the end of the scoring and the season for the Braves.
Chatard finished the game 20-for-42 from the floor.
“I thought our defense made some of their layups tough shots, where ours were point-blank,” Allman said.
Benter topped the Braves (19-7) with 18 points, and Borden topped her team in rebounds with seven.
The Braves limited Rasheed, a University of Akron recruit, to three points in the second half and she finished with 20.
“We don’t have anything to hang our heads about,” Allman said. “We got 26 games in, and there are a lot of teams that didn’t get that many games in. I just gave our girls kudos for their diligence, the sacrifices we had to make to stay healthy and stay out of quarantine.”
Allman said the varsity and JV teams had to practice at opposite ends of the floor because of COVID-19.
“Our philosophy is that we are one big family,” he said. “It has been difficult because I haven’t had (JV) at our sectional practices and that type of thing to just tracing.”
Benter and Koch will be moving on to college in the fall
“I couldn’t ask for two better young women,” Allman said of his seniors. “They’re going to do great things. Both are top-notch students and are going on to college and play athletics.”
Greencastle Regional
Chatard;14;15;12;11;—;52
Brownstown;7;10;21;9;—;47
Brownstown (19-7): Katherine Benter 7 0-2 18, Maddy Hackman 3 0-0 9, Avery Koch 3 1-2 7, Emma Klinge 2 0-0 6, Kalee Borden 1 0-0 3, Hannah Stahl 1 0-0 3, Kelsey Wischmeier 0 0-0 0, Peyton Brock 0 0-0 0, Addie Shelton 0 0-0 0, Emma Klinge 1 0-0 2, Kalee Borden 3 1-2 7, Andrea Bair 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 2-6 47.
Bishop Chatard (17-7): Zakia Rasheed 7 1-2 20, Moira McGinley 2 1-4 6, Carly DeCastro 4 1-2 9, Grace Adams 3 2-6 9, Izzy Davis 4 1-2 9. Totals 20 6-16 53
3-point goals: Brownstown (Benter 4, Hackman 3, Klinge 2, Borden, Stahl), Chatard (Rasheed 5, McGinley, Adams)
Rebounds: Brownstown 23 (Borden 7, Benter 5, Bair 4), Chatard (McGinley 12)
Turnovers: Brownstown 11, Chatard 11
Fouls: Brownstown 14, Chatard 7