The Brownstown Central boys basketball team gathered in the school’s cafeteria on Tuesday night to put a bow on the Braves’ successful 2021-22 season.

It was a season in which the Braves went 22-4, won a share of the Mid-Southern Conference and won a sectional championship.

When head coach Dave Benter was reflecting on the season, he said he thought the team had a motivated demeanor after losing to Northview in the 2021 sectional.

“I felt our kids were really motivated and really focused,” he said. “We were in a much better place than we were the year before.”

Brownstown had two early double overtime games in the season against Seymour and North Harrison, and the Braves won both. Benter said he thought it was a mark of a good team in finding ways to pull out those wins.

Then Brownstown played in a holiday tournament, suffering its first loss of the season to Fort Wayne Blackhawk in the championship game. Benter said he thought that game exposed some of the team’s weaknesses, and it was followed by another disappointing loss to Jennings County.

But then Brownstown really started to find its groove. Aside from an all-systems failure loss at Corydon Central, the Braves closed the regular season winning 12 of 13 games.

That stretch featured wins against eventual Class 2A state champion Providence and a Floyd Central team that had just beaten the Class 4A state champion Indianapolis Cathedral the week prior.

The Braves went into sectional with a lot of momentum and avenged the loss from a year ago and claimed the sectional title.

“I thought the sectional championship game was about as good as we’ve played all year,” Benter said.

Brownstown faced eventual Class 3A state champ Beech Grove in the regional semifinal, and after falling down 16-2 at the end of the first quarter, the Braves clawed back and made it a fight to the finish.

“There are things I’ll always remember about this team,” Benter said. “First, there’s just very little drama. You need to have guys that are coachable and want to be coached and kids that have great chemistry. Our leadership throughout the year was good. Those are all marks of good, quality teams.”

Then Benter handed out individual awards for the season.

The highest field goal percentage award went to Aidan Schroer, who shot 73%. The highest free throw percentage award went to Jack Benter, who shot 86% from the charity stripe. Brownstown as a team set the school record for team free throw percentage in a season with 76.8%.

Jack Benter also led the team in rebounds (159) and assists (100). He was voted on as the most valuable player by his teammates.

For the first time ever, there was a tie in votes for the best defensive player award, and that went to Carter Waskom and Parker Hehman.

Lastly, the mental attitude award went to Levi Stahl.

“I couldn’t agree more with the team,” Benter said of Stahl. “I’ve already talked about his attitude and his leadership.”

The junior varsity team had a record of 17-3 this season. Earning JV highest free throw percentage was Pierson Wheeler at 78%, and the JV most improved award went to Adam Stahl.

The Brownstown cheerleaders kicked off the awards banquet, and head coach Brooklyn Thomas gave the mental attitude award to Maddison Brittain, who was busy playing in the Braves’ softball season opener that night.

Coach Benter closed the banquet with a message to the younger players.

“These four guys (seniors Waskom, Schroer, Stahl and Trapper Dean) walking out the door set the bar,” he said. “To continue that, you have to think about what has made us successful.”

Benter said he got a couple of texts over the weekend telling him how close Brownstown is to being a state championship caliber team. He left the team with the quote “Success is not given, it is earned” to challenge the Braves on how to handle success and get better from it.

“I challenge the underclassmen to continue to work to be hungrier and come back bigger and better next year,” he said.