BROWNSTOWN

Brownstown Central’s boys basketball team relies on its defense and rebounding ability to create havoc on both ends of the floor.

The Class 3A No. 10 Braves held Trinity Lutheran to single-digit scoring in three of four quarters for a 68-37 victory Tuesday.

Seth Borden scored three straight baskets and Issac Johnson added a score to put the Braves (10-2) up 8-3 through the opening six minutes of the first quarter.

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Trent Shoemaker’s second 3-pointer of the quarter cut the Trinity (4-12) deficit to 8-6 with 1:30 on the clock, but Johnson responded with an and-one conversion to put the Braves back up by five.

At the end of eight minutes of play, the Braves led 11-7.

Up 19-13 with 5:23 left in the half, the Braves put together a 10-0 scoring run.

With five ticks left before intermission, Isaiah Wineinger hit a trey to extend the Braves’ lead to 29-13.

Trinity shot 25 percent from the field to the Braves’ 52.2 percent.

“I think we had some good looks at the basket early, we just couldn’t get them down,” Trinity coach Brian Stuckwisch said. “Their defense was very good and fundamentally sound.  That leads to a lot of offense. They are a very good team.”

In the third quarter, the Braves buried the Cougars.

Up 33-19, the Braves went on a 14-0 scoring string to push the lead to 47-19 going into the final eight minutes of play. In the span, Matthew Garland had five points and Johnson added four.

While the Cougars’ offense finally came to life in the fourth quarter, the hole proved too deep.

Jack Marksberry and A.J. Goecker each hit 3-pointers for Trinity before the teams exchanged the next four baskets.

Back-to-back 3-pointers from Tyler Goecker and Shoemaker cut it to 61-35 with 2:46 remaining before both teams emptied benches.

Ethan Wischmeier carried the offensive load for the Braves in the fourth quarter, scoring 10 of his game-high 17 points in the final period. Johnson was next in scoring for the Braves with 14 points.

The Braves had nine different players record a field goal in the game.

“I thought that once Isaiah, Isaac and Seth got going, we were doing a pretty good job of scoring the ball,” Braves coach Dave Benter said. “I thought as the game went on, Ethan and Matt got better, too. We want to play uptempo, but we need to take really good shots. I think we’re getting better at that.”

Wineinger started in place of injured point guard Michael Boshears.

“We always talk about the next man up,” Benter said. “I felt really comfortable having Isaiah coming in and starting. He does a nice job of leading on the floor and talking. He has a good understanding of where guys should be.”

Shoemaker led the Cougars 12 points on four 3-pointers, and Tyler Goecker had 11.

On the boards, Brownstown dominated Trinity 36-17. The Braves had 13 turnovers to the Cougars’ 17.

From the floor, the Braves shot 27-for-53 on the game to the Cougars’ 13-for-43.

Trinity will host Medora on Friday and Brownstown will travel to Brown County on Saturday.

The Braves are 6-0 all-time against the Cougars.

“We want to try and take something from this,” Stuckwisch said. “This team is probably better than anyone in our sectional. We want to look at this game and see what we need to work on the next few weeks before sectional.”