HANOVER— Adaptability, honed over the last two years, paid off for Brownstown Central’s boys basketball team on Saturday night.

After using pace and firepower to dominant in the first two rounds, the Braves were forced by a physical Providence team to play a radically slower, half-court-centric game in the Class 2A Southwestern Sectional championship.

No problem.

Brownstown shifted into a lower gear and still managed to win comfortably, 53-37. The Braves (24-4) earned a spot in next week’s Washington Regional and will take on Sullivan (21-5), a 60-50 winner over South Knox in the Paoli Sectional final. Brownstown and Sullivan will tip off at 4 p.m.

“This was why we played the schedule we did, for games like tonight,” Brownstown head coach Dave Benter said. “When you play the best teams in the state, like we have the past two summers, you see all kinds of different styles. Both the physicality and speed of the game. All of our guys were really comfortable out there. And Providence, give them credit. I mean, they play as hard as anybody in the state.”

Not surprisingly, Providence came out with a ball-control mentality, though maybe to a greater extent than was expected.

The Pioneers held on to the ball for over three minutes on their first possession and created a plodding pace that resulted in just five combined points and seven total field goal attempts in the game’s first eight minutes.

Providence’s plans were undermined, however, by its ice-cold start offensively, a reality abetted by a solid Brownstown defense.

After Brian Wall made a layup nearly six minutes into the game to give the Pioneers a 2-0 lead, Providence never led the game again. In the first half, the Pioneers were 2-for-10 from the field and scored just five points.

“I liked the way we started, but we needed some of those shots to fall,” Providence head coach Ryan Miller said. “I told the boys that sometimes, you can execute the game plan, you can play well, but it’s about knocking down shots. If we could have had some of those shots fall in the first half, we would have been in a good position.”

For the game, the Pioneers shot 38 percent from the floor and didn’t score their 10th point until midway through the third period. Chace Coomer held Providence senior Quentin Hesse to five points on 1-for-8 shooting.

“Everybody talks about our offense, because we can score and everything else. But tonight, we played really, really good defense,” Brownstown senior Parker Hehman said.

For Brownstown’s offense, meanwhile, the first half was about adjusting to the game’s disorderly rhythm.

In their previous two sectional wins over Henryville and Southwestern, the Braves averaged 16 3-pointers and 78 points. Providence’s get-inside-your-shirt defense and deliberate offensive tempo put those numbers out of reach.

Brownstown ended Saturday’s game with just two 3-pointers and its 53 points were its lowest output since a 76-51 loss to Indianapolis Attucks in December, a game Jack Benter missed due to injury.

Instead, Brownstown used half-court sets to get shots around the basket and exploited Providence’s physicality to draw fouls. The Pioneers were whistled for 26 fouls (compared to 14 on BC) leading to 39 foul shots for the Braves (Providence took 12).

Having Jack Benter made half-court execution and drawing fouls easier, of course. The senior scored 32 points, including 11 during a low-scoring but decisive second quarter. He shot 7-for-13 from the field and 17-for-21 from the foul line.

“Offensively, Jack put us on his back,” Dave Benter said. “They really struggled to guard him. We were able to get him the ball in spots where he could do some things and get to the foul line and score for us.”

Benter scored eight straight points to start the second quarter, giving BC an 11-5 lead. A layup by Adam Stahl, a 3-pointer by Benter and fast-break layup by Greg Hutcheson pushed the Braves’ lead to 18-5 at halftime.

“We wanted to get an early lead,” Jack Benter said. “That way they would have to come out of their passing-it-around game and we could actually play.”

Providence abandoned the slow approach in the third quarter and saw an uptick in offensive production. The Pioneers eventually whittled Brownstown’s lead to nine with six minutes left in the fourth quarter.

By that point, however, Providence needed to foul to preserve the clock and Brownstown’s foul shooting was stout enough to withstand a Pioneer comeback. Benter, Hehman, Sheffer, Stahl, Pierson Wheeler and Lane Pendleton combined to make 20 of 25 free throws in the fourth quarter.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence in our guys,” Dave Benter said. “With our injuries this season, we’ve had a lot of guys play different roles. They’ve had to step up and make big plays, and I thought that showed late. Our guys were comfortable with the basketball at the free throw line.”

Saturday’s victory gives Brownstown its fourth sectional title in the last five years, including three in a row. It’s the 22nd boys basketball sectional crown in school history. In his 26 years as head coach, Benter has 12 sectional wins.

“This one’s special,” Benter said. “I’ve been around these seniors since they’ve been kindergartners. On top of that, we get to play another week for Colby Hall. There’s nothing worse for a kid than working all year and getting hurt in the sectional.”

Hall suffered a right-ankle injury during the Braves’ first-round win over Henryville. He missed both the semifinal and final rounds.

“With Colby out, we had to have other guys step up,” Hehman said. “I’m just proud of my teammates. (Providence) brings the best out of us every time we play them. It’s always a tough game with them. We knew to get through (the sectional), we were going to have to beat Providence. Ever since last year, we’ve been waiting on this game. Coming into the week, we knew we needed to dominate and get out of here with the win.”

Hehman, who took over the school’s assist record this season, had modest numbers on Saturday night with one point and two assists, but won praise from his coach for handling Providence’s full-court pressure.

“Parker Hehman was fantastic tonight,” Benter said. “The pressure that he and the rest of the guys had to face when they had the basketball, I thought they handled it really well.”

Hehman and Coomer were named to the sectional’s All-Tournament team, along with Hesse and Noah Lovan from Providence. Kade Anderson (Eastern), Jacob Seward (Clarksville), Aydan Head (Henryville), Xander Richie (Austin), Jamison Lewis (Southwestern) and Brady Cook (Southwestern) were also All-Tournament selections.

Benter was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. In three sectional games, he scored 88 points (29.3 average) and pulled down 23 rebounds.

With 32 points on Saturday, Benter’s career total jumped to 2,449 and moved him into the No. 14 slot on the Indiana boys all-time scoring list.

Benter currently sits at 14th place in the all-time scoring rankings.
Submitted Photo

Southwestern Sectional

Brownstown Central 53, Providence 37

Providence;2;3;13;19;—;37

Brownstown;3;15;13;22;—;53

Providence (18-4): Noah Lovan 5 4-4 14, Preston Kempf 5 0-2 13, Quentin Hesse 1 3-4 5, Brian Wall 2 1-2 5, Carter Lannan 0 0-0 0, Elijah Fuller-Tucker 0 0-0 0, Drew Kelly 0 0-0 0, Bryson Whitlock 0 0-0 0, Charlie Scott 0 0-0 0, Totals 13 8-12 37.

Brownstown Central (24-4): Jack Benter 7 17-21 32, Adam Stahl 2 4-8 8, Pierson Wheeler 1 2-2 5, Micah Sheffer 0 3-4 3, Greg Hutcheson 1 0-0 2, Lane Pendleton 0 2-2 2, Parker Hehman 0 1-2 1, Caiden Gwin 0 0-0 0, Owen Wischmeier 0 0-0 0, Carter Covert 0 0-0 0, Chace Coomer 0 0-0 0, Totals 11 29-39 53.

3-Point Goals: Providence 3 (Kempf 3), Brownstown 2 (Benter, Wheeler).

Rebounds: Providence 22 (Hesse 5, Lovan 5, Wall 5), Brownstown 27 (Benter 11, Sheffer 5, Stahl 4, Coomer 2, Wheeler 1, Team 4).

Turnovers: Providence 9, Brownstown 5.

Personal fouls: Providence 26, Brownstown 14.