Brownstown boys celebrate stellar basketball season

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The Brownstown Central boys basketball team gathered in the school’s cafeteria last week to put a bow on the 2022-23 season that had a lot of moments worth celebrating.

The banquet started with cheerleading coach Lydia Benter coming up and honoring her squad. The Braves had four cheerleaders this season — Lizzie Pollert, Lilly Schuerman, Lacey Davis and Myleigh Sweeney. Davis and Sweeney were both first-time letter winners.

Pollert won the spirit of Brownstown cheerleading award.

On the hardwood, the Brownstown C team went 8-4, and the junior varsity team went 14-7 with a perfect 8-0 conference record.

Earning the JV most improved award was Lane Pendleton.

Varsity head coach Dave Benter took the floor to talk about the Braves’ 24-5 season in which they won their second straight sectional championship, first regional title since 2009 and made it to the semistate championship game.

One thing that stood out to Benter was how selfless his team was. He gave credit to the three seniors — Jakob Arthur, Carson Darlage and Bryce Neal — for helping the team keep a strong culture throughout the year.

The Braves set a lot of school records this season.

Jack Benter tied the record for most free throws in a game with 17 against Providence. He also set the record for most points in a season (774), most points per game average (28.7), single game scoring record (51), career scoring record (1,859 currently) and career 3-point record (236 currently).

Parker Hehman set the record for most 3-pointers in a game with 12 against Corydon Central. In that same game, Brownstown set the team record for most 3s made at 22, and the Braves also set the team record for most 3s made in an entire season with 273.

Along the same lines of shooting, Chace Coomer set the season record for highest 3-point percentage at 51%. That mark also earned him the highest 3-point percentage team award.

Colby Hall won the highest field goal percentage award at 55%. Benter won the most rebounds award at 188 and most assists award at 122.

Hehman won the defensive player award, and Darlage won the mental attitude award.

Benter was the team’s most valuable player. He also made the Bobcat of Daviess County Classic all-tourney team, Supreme 15 Underclass team and Indiana Junior All-Star team.

Benter, Hehman and Hall were all all-Mid-Southern Conference, and Hehman and Hall were small school all-state honorable mention.

Arthur and manager Briana Barker both earned varsity jackets.

The Braves are losing three valuable seniors that coach Benter said will be hard to replace, but the team also is returning a whole lot of production from this year’s squad that was one game away from playing for a state championship.

Benter left his returning players with two quotes.

One was “Don’t count the days. Make the days count.”

Benter said there’s a little more than 200 days until Brownstown begins its 2023-24 season, and he encouraged his team to make every single day in the offseason count toward that.

The second quote was “For every one hundred men who can stand adversity, there is only one who can withstand prosperity.”

Benter knows his team is going to receive a lot of praise and hype, and he wants them to stay focused on the task at hand, which is to be the last team standing on March 30, 2024.

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