HENRYVILLE
In a foul-heavy, turnover-ridden, physical girls basketball game, Henryville senior Emily Hollis dropped 12 of 13 free throws in the fourth quarter to edge her team past visiting Brownstown Central 63-60 on Saturday.
In the first quarter, Brownstown came out hot, making their first four baskets to take an 8-0 lead at the 6:03 mark.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
The Braves continued rolling the rest of the quarter offensively, with five players scoring, and held a 14-5 lead after eight minutes of play.
“I thought we started the game really well,” Braves coach Karla Rieckers said. “We talked about having a really good start. When we played Trinity Lutheran and Mitchell we didn’t start those games well. I thought in the second quarter we let them get some turnovers and they rattled us.”
Following a basket by Braves sophomore Grace Jaynes, Henryville went on a 20-4 lead in the first six minutes of the second quarter.
Hollis registered 10 points during the run, as the Hornets led 25-18 with 2:24 left in the first half.
However, BCHS responded and would retake the lead.
A 3-pointer by Braves sophomore Sophie Kreis gave the Braves a 26-24 lead heading into intermission.
Braves senior Wehmiller opened the Braves scoring in the second half with a trey, but neither team could find their offensive footing the rest of the third quarter.
Both BCHS and Henryville recorded 10 points apiece in the third, with the Braves maintaining a 38-36 edge after 24 minutes.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Wehmiller notched seven-straight points to help the visitors take a 45-38 advantage with 6:05 to play.
“We want her to do that,” Rieckers said of her only senior. “She’s our senior leader. It’s always nice to see her do that. She was attacking the basket and that’s what we need to do.”
The Braves would turn the ball over eight times in the fourth quarter, and had a number of fouls as Hollis racked-up points on six trips to the charity stripe.
With 35 seconds left, Jaynes sank a pair of free throws to put the Braves within one point at 61-60.
Following made free throws from Hollis, the Braves were able to hoist up two shots in the final 17 seconds but couldn’t connect.
Brownstown amassed 28 fouls with three players leaving the game and the Hornets had 23 infractions with one foul-out.
Wehmiller led the Braves with 20 points and freshman Payton Farmer had 12 points with a team-high six rebounds.
The Braves turned the ball over 28 times in the contest while Henryville had 20 giveaways.
Hollis recorded 25 points, going 16-for-17 from the free throw line, and fellow-senior Haley Huddleston notched 20 for the Hornets.
The Hornets went 30-for-38 from the foul line and Brownstown was 19-for-29.
“I think the main thing is that we learn from it,” Rieckers said. “We can’t turn the ball over that many times. We had opportunities at the end, but couldn’t get a basket to fall. We need to improve our free throw percentage and get to the free throw line more. When we get to the free throw line 29 times and they get to the line 38 times, that’s a little bit of a problem there.”
The loss marks the Braves’ first blemish of the season, as they stand at 4-1, before their home contest against Columbus East on Tuesday.
“I thought the kids played extremely hard,” Rieckers said. “We battled but made some costly turnovers that we can’t make. I think some of that comes from our youth. Most of the night we had two sophomores and two freshmen on the floor. We will have some growing pains. Not to take anything away from Henryville, they have a really nice team. We knew they would be good, and we couldn’t get slowed down tonight.”