Two Jackson County teams have yet to begin sectional play, and that ends tonight.

The Brownstown Central Braves will take on Providence tonight at Austin High School, and the Crothersville Tigers will battle Trinity Lutheran at Rising Sun High School.

Brownstown coach Brandon Allman said his Braves are going to have to play fundamentally sound for four quarters when they play Providence.

The Braves received the bye in the seven-team sectional while the Pioneers defeated Eastern 55-38 Tuesday night.

The Braves (17-7) did not play the Pioneers (15-8) during the season.

Allman said, “We are going to have to be fundamentally sound offensively and limit our turnovers. We are going to need some younger players step up and contribute scoring the basketball.”

The Braves take a 3-game win streak into the sectional. They defeated North Harrison 47-43 in their final regular season game in which Kalee Borden scored a career-high 27 points.

Maddy Hackman tops the Braves in scoring at 12.4 points per game and Borden is next at 10.6.

Some of those underclassmen Allman was talking about were junior Kelsey Schneider and sophomores Jenna Klosterman and Addison Darlage. Klosterman scored 17 against Madison, and Schneider has scored in double figures twice.

“Providence is a very young team, starting three freshmen and two seniors, but don’t let their youth fool you,” Allman said. “They don’t play like freshmen, especially the Smith twins (Avery and Addison), daughters of former boys coach Sean Smith.

“Providence plays extremely hard, and they are going to press us and trap us all over the place. On the offensive end, they will spread us out and look to drive and kick. We are going to have to make sure to contain the ball and keep their guards out of the paint.”

Addison Smith tops the Pioneers in scoring at 16.1 PPG.

Allman said, “Like anything else the bye has its positives and negatives. However, it does have more positives. It allows us a little more rest and more time to prepare for Providence.

“Whether it is 2A or 3A, we are still going to have to play some really superb basketball to win a sectional title. We hope that the strength of our schedule has prepared us to play anyone. It is nice to have won a few games in a row coming in the sectional even though I don’t think we were at our best. Hopefully, the extra time will allow some girls to get completely healthy and also gain some of our confidence back.”

Allman said he feels like the sectional is wide open, and this the Braves should be considered among the favorites to bring home the trophy.

“There are definitely at least four teams that have a legit chance to win our sectional,” he said. “Austin received a very favorable draw in the bottom half of the bracket, and the top half of the bracket has the other two teams including ourselves.”

On Wednesday night, Southwestern beat Henryville 45-35 and Austin beat Clarksville 49-21. The Rebels will take on the Eagles in the second game tonight.

The championship game will be at 7 p.m. Saturday.

As for Crothersville, the Tigers are down to five players to close out the season — Morgan Womack, Kendall Berry, Ally Mendoza, Hali Burton and Matty Deaton.

Despite being short-handed, head coach Kevin Hensley is proud that his team wanted to finish out the season.

“They’re giving their heart and trying to give their best out there,” Hensley said. “I’m just so proud of them that they wanted to finish out this season with just five girls.”

Burton, Womack and Berry have carried most of the scoring load, but each Tiger has gotten in the scoresheet so far this season.

Crothersville will face a tough task in Trinity tonight. The Cougars beat the Tigers 88-14 earlier in the season on Nov. 19.

The Tigers received a bye while Trinity beat Shawe Memorial 51-38 on Tuesday night. The game between the two county foes will take place at 6 p.m. tonight.

New Washington will battle Rising Sun (who beat Medora 62-19) in the second game tonight.

The finals will be Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.