NEW PEKIN — The march continued for Brownstown Central’s boys basketball team on Friday night.

The Braves dismantled an overmatched Eastern (Pekin) squad 77-38 and added a few more team accomplishments and personal milestones to their growing collection in the process.

The most important of the team accomplishments was the Mid-Southern Conference title. With the win over Eastern, BC completed a perfect 8-0 run through the league to claim the outright crown, the program’s 23rd overall and the 14th of head coach Dave Benter’s 26 years at the helm.

Brownstown also extended its current win streak to 10 and carries an impressive 19-4 record into the regular season’s final week.

“(Winning the conference) was one of our goals at the start the year,” Benter said. “Any time you go on the road in the conference, you just never know, but our guys have been really locked in all year. I didn’t think we had a good practice Wednesday, but other than that, we’ve put together about a month of good practices.”

Brownstown led Friday’s contest from start to finish but only held a one-point lead with two minutes left in the first period before taking control with a 13-0 run.

Two foul shots and a layup by Adam Stahl, a Pierson Wheeler 3-pointer, another 3 by Parker Hehman and a three-point play by Chace Coomer fueled the game-changing run and gave the Braves a 24-10 lead early in the second period.

BC closed out the first half with a 7-0 spurt to take a 38-15 lead into halftime, then outscored Eastern 26-9 in the third quarter to jump to a 64-24 advantage. Hehman’s 3-pointer with 1:59 to go in the third gave Brownstown a 35-point lead and tripped the running clock.

“The last two games, we haven’t shot the ball very well, but we’ve still been pretty dominant in both games, which has been encouraging,” Benter said. “Hopefully, we can get back to shooting the way we’re capable of next week.”

Senior Jack Benter led all scorers with 31 points on 11-for-17 shooting, including a fast-break dunk. Hehman followed with 12 points. Colby Hall scored eight points in the third quarter and also finished with 12 points.

Hehman and Benter added personal milestones to the team’s accomplishments. Hehman dished out four assists and is now tied with Jeff Neal at 374 for the school’s career assist record.

Benter, meanwhile, jumped into the Indiana all-time scoring list’s top 20 with his effort. His career scoring total now stands at 2,298, good for the No. 20 spot.

Benter moved up three spots and passed, among others, Markus Burton, currently a standout freshman on Notre Dame’s basketball team.

In the regular season’s final week, the Braves face two more tests against Class 4A foe New Albany (Tuesday) and Class A power Orleans (Friday).

“New Albany is always a tough game, then we go to Orleans,” Dave Benter said. “They’re going to one of the top 1A teams in the south and have a legitimate chance to win a state championship, and we play them at their place. It’s good. It’ll get us ready for sectional. Our sectional is one of probably the two toughest 2A sectionals in the state, and we want to be playing quality teams right now.”

In the night’s preliminary event, Brownstown’s JV continued its quest for a perfect season with a 63-9 mauling of Eastern’s younger squad. The Braves improved to 17-0 with two games remaining.

Lane Pendleton knocked down four 3-pointers and led all scorers with 26 points. Owen Wischmeier ended with a game-high five 3s en route to 17 points. Linkan Brittain followed with nine points.

Brownstown Central 77, Eastern (Pekin) 38

Brownstown;21;17;26;13;—;77

Eastern (Pekin);10;5;9;14;—;38

Brownstown Central (19-4): Jack Benter 11 8-12 31, Parker Hehman 5 0-0 12, Colby Hall 6 0-0 12, Adam Stahl 2 2-2 7, Pierson Wheeler 2 0-0 6, Lane Pendleton 2 1-1 6, Chace Coomer 1 1-1 3, Preston Garrison 0 0-0 0, Caiden Gwin 0 0-0 0, Owen Wischmeier 0 0-0 0, Greg Hutcheson 0 0-0 0, Micah Sheffer 0 0-0 0, Totals 29 12-16 77.

Eastern (10-11): Kade Anderson 7 3-4 19, Cody Banet 3 2-2 10, Bransun White 1 0-2 3, Kaden Temple 0 3-4 3, Brody Temple 0 1-2 1, Reece Wineinger 1 0-0 2, Totals 12 9-14 38.

3-pointers: Brownstown 7 (Hehman 2, Wheeler 2, Benter, Pendleton, Stahl), Eastern 5 (Anderson 2, Banet 2, White)

Rebounds: Brownstown 34 (Benter 7), Eastern 23 (White 4, K. Temple 4)

Turnovers: Brownstown 9, Eastern 18

Fouls: Brownstown 16, Eastern 15

Junior varsity

Brownstown Central 63, Eastern 9

Brownstown Central (17-0): Lane Pendleton 26, Owen Wischmeier 17, Linkan Brittain 9, Brock Dean 5, Chase Brock 3, Nathaniel Conyer 2, Preston Garrison 1