By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BROWNSTOWN – Great players and teams, when jump shots have deserted faster than a cowardly solider in battle, find other ways to win. That’s the goal, after all. Style points and flash are irrelevant. If there’s 50 ways to say goodbye, Brownstown used a few of those to bid Bedford North Lawrence farewell.
Shot is paralyzed? Pass. Pride feeling the sting from misfires? Rebound. Opponent too clingy? Force turnovers.
With The Pit, Brownstown’s sold-out home court, in a little despair as the Stars refused to surrender, the Braves surged midway through the third quarter to pull away, celebrating their Senior Night with a 71-49 victory on Friday night. Parker Hehman, one of the few who was immune to the perimeter shooting woes, scored 21 points as Brownstown (18-4) posted its ninth straight win.
BNL (12-6) was poised and making noise, trailing 38-36 when Brownstown exploded. Like a coiled cobra, the strike was fast and deadly. In just a couple of minutes, the Braves waved adieu with an 11-0 run, kept the burst going to 19-3 in the opening moments of the fourth quarter. That wasn’t a crappy purple Scion that ran over BNL, that was a Class 2A power with too many ways to inflict punishment.
Jack Benter, the Purdue recruit and the reason for all the attention on the Braves, started the deciding burst with a rebound basket, then fired a pinpoint pass to Hehman for a trey from the key. Micah Sheffer rebounded a Benter miss for a 3-point play, and Benter again found Hehman for another bomb and a 49-38 lead.
BNL’s Patric Mason, who was a shooting star in his own right, momentarily stopped the run with a corner trey, but the Braves kept blasting away. Sheffer swished a wing bomb, Colby Hall buried a jumper from the key, and Benter started the fourth quarter with a 3-point play after muscling through a defender for a bucket.
“We were down to a one-possession game,” BNL coach Kurt Godlevske said. “We were battling, the kids were terrific as far as executing exactly what we wanted to do. But they’re a good team for a reason. They started getting a lot of second- and third-chance opportunities, they started making some shots. They’re just a good team. Once you play from behind, it’s going to be difficult.”
BNL got close when Matson and Noah Godlevske hit four straight treys early in the third. The Stars fell back when they committed four turnovers during the Brownstown run.
“We thought it might be a game of spurts,” Brownstown coach Dave Benter said. “We finally got going a little bit offensively.”
Neither team earned any rave reviews at first. BNL took an 8-7 lead when Isaiah Sasser finished the initial quarter with a soft lane jumper off a Maddox Ray baseline drive and dish. Then Hehman started the next frame with a three in transition, and BNL would never lead again. Although the Stars didn’t get left in the dust, thanks to Kline Woodward’s two interior buckets, Quincy Pickett’s baseline bomb and Dax Short’s floater. Hehman hit three 3-pointers in the second quarter as the Braves went to intermission with a 30-24 edge.
Benter had only 5 points in the first half, showing some frustration. In the second half, Brownstown found ways to get him the ball inside, and he started finding teammates. Benter totaled 7 assists and added 10 redounds with his 16 points.
“He was struggling, so we made an effort to get him down hill or in the post,” Benter said of his son. “They were collapsing on him, but it opened up some things for other guys. They stepped up and made some big plays.
“He has to figure out ways to help us win, and he did that. There will be nights when the shot doesn’t go, and he hasn’t had very many of those for a while. He played a little frustrated in the first half, but in the second he refocused and re-energized.”
Brownstown was 10 of 35 from distance. Jump shots can be as fickle as fame. The Braves made up for the lack of usual quality with quantity, posting a dominating 38-22 advantage on the boards to get 19 more shot attempts than BNL. Colby Hall finished with 13 points and 7 rebounds.
“That,” Godlevske said of the rebounding difference, “is a tell-tale sign of the game. I thought we did a really good job defensively. But sometimes when you have to over-help like that, it leads to extra possessions when you miss box-out attempts.”
“That’s been our thing,” Benter said. “We rebound the basketball really well., We have size, but size doesn’t always mean that you’re good rebounders. Our guys have a nose for the ball. Most teams are respecting our 3-point shooting so much, they’re spread out defensively, it opens up the middle when shots are taken. Our guys pursue the ball really well.”
Matson paced BNL with 23 points, including 6 treys. Godlevske added 11 points. Starting forward Logan Miracle was absent after suffering a concussion during last week’s win over Crawfordsville.
“Patric played down hill instead of playing on his heels, he was aggressive looking for his shot,” Godlevske said. “Once he plays like that, good things will happen for us.”
The Stars will visit New Albany on Feb. 16. BNL’s home game with Evansville North, currently set for Feb. 17, will be moved to Tuesday (Feb. 13) if the BNL girls win the regional and advance to the semistate.
BEDFORD NL STARS (49)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
10 Patric Matson, f 6-9 8-15 1-1 6 2 23
40 Kline Woodward, f 0-0 2-3 0-0 6 3 4
11 Noah Godlevske, g 3-11 4-15 0-0 0 0 11
1 Trace Rynders, g 0-0 0-0 0-0 3 4 0
12 Maddox Ray, g 0-0 0-1 0-0 1 3 0
22 Isaiah Sasser 0-0 2-3 0-0 3 2 4
3 Quincy Pickett 1-3 1-3 0-0 2 0 3
5 Dax Short 0-1 2-3 0-0 0 1 4
20 Jonah Bailey 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 10-24 19-43 1-1 22 15 49
BROWNSTOWN BRAVES (71)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
34 Colby Hall, f 0-0 4-6 5-6 7 0 13
44 Adam Stahl, f 0-1 4-6 0-1 5 1 8
12 Caiden Gwin, g 0-3 0-3 0-0 0 0 0
10 Parker Hehman, g 7-11 7-13 0-0 4 2 21
14 Jack Benter, g 1-8 7-17 1-1 10 1 16
33 Chace Coomer 1-5 3-9 0-0 1 0 7
24 Micah Sheffer 1-3 2-4 1-1 3 1 6
30 Pierson Wheeler 0-2 0-2 0-0 3 0 0
23 Gregory Hutchenson 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
32 Lane Pendleton 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
22 Carter Covert 0-0 0-0 0-2 2 0 0
42 Drew Shelton 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
5 Linkan Brittain 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
20 Kylis Brock 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
Totals 10-35 27-62 7-8 38 5 71
Bedford NL 8 16 15 10 – 49
Brownstown 7 23 24 17 – 71
Turnovers – BNL 14, Brownstown 5
Field goal percentage – BNL 19-43 (.442); Brownstown 27-62 (.435)
Free throw percentage – BNL 1-1 (1.000); Brownstown 7-8 (.875)
