For The Tribune
BROWNSTOWN
On a five-game losing streak, coach Karla Rieckers said her Brownstown Central girls’ basketball team needed a something positive to happen during Tuesday’s Mid-Southern Conference game against visiting Clarksville.
She found that confidence builder early when the Braves opened up a 26-10 lead after one quarter and rolled 74-38.
“It was nice to be able to get back in the win column,” Rieckers said as her team snapped a five-game losing streak.
“We’d been struggling for a while. Not that we necessarily hadn’t played well, but we’ve lost some close games, we’ve missed some free throws, and missed some shots, and it was nice to get back on track.”
It didn’t take long for the Braves to get in the groove offensively as Payton Farmer and Morgan Wehmiller made free throws to give their team a 3-2 lead.
Wehmiller hit a 3-point basket from the top of the key to put BC up 7-2 two minutes into the game.
Brooklyn Snodgrass then took over the Braves’ offense with a layup and another 3 from the top of the key, and the freshman guard converted a 3-point play to complete the Braves’ 20-4 run at 3:37.
Shelby Stuckwsisch made a 3-pointer from the right wing before Kristen Snodgrass hit BC’s fourth 3 of the night, and she added a jump shot to complete the scoring in the first period for the 26-10 cushion.
The Braves opened the second period on a 7-0 run as Grace Jaynes’ layup gave the home team a 33-10 lead at the 3:50-mark. Emma Zabor and Kristen Stuckwisch added 3-pointer in the closing minutes of the half to help their team to a 40-16 lead at the break.
“I felt like we did a good job of working our offense,” Rieckers said. “I think a lot of teams are going to zone us, and we’ve been working on our zone offense more, attacking from the outside, and also attack from the inside.
“I thought for the most part we did a nice job of that tonight.” The Braves finished with 27-for-60 shooting from the floor.
Jaynes and Snodgrass topped the Braves with 12 points each, Wehmiller, Madison Klinge, Farmer and Shelby Stuckwisch scored nine a piece and Kristen Stuckwisch netted eight.
“It was nice to get Grace back in the scoring column because we need her to score, and the nice balance we had,” Rieckers said.
The Braves (6-6, 2-4 MSC) held a 30-27 advantage on the boards with Farmer grabbing 9 and Jaynes 6 to top BC.
Clarksville shot 13-for-42 from the floor and committed 26 turnovers.
Rieckers said the Braves’ defense deserves credit for doing a good job of applying pressure.
“They’re not quite as good a ball handlers as some of the teams we’ve played in the past,” she said. “I was glad to see our man-to-man defense cause them some turnovers, and we threw a couple different defenses at them that we’ve been working on in practice, and haven’t really used in a game that we want to try to get to use in a game.
“We did a little bit of 1-3-1 and a little bit of 2-2-1 and a little bit of 1-2-2 half court. We just threw some different things in there that hopefully we’ll be able to utilize down the road.”
Bailey Sharp topped the Generals (4-9, 0-4 MSC) with 13 points and Aly Weber scored 11.