By DAVID WOOD, for The Democrat
Having endured a turbulent season of both overtime and single-digit losses, the Brown County girls varsity basketball team is gathering momentum and picking up where they left off.
After pulling away 44-14 in the first half against Crothersville on Jan. 8, they refused to put on the brakes.
The Eagles poured the pressure on, doubling Crothersville 73-36 to improve to a 6-10 overall record.
“It was big for us to come out and get an early lead. Crothersville is not a bad team, they really aren’t. They were 11-7 coming into this. … They play a good variety of teams and they usually play them pretty tough,” said Head Coach Matt Roberts.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]While it’s not unusual for the squad to pull away with an early lead, they’ve had a problem closing out games. However, it appears as if they’re tightening the loose ends.
“I feel like we kind of picked up where we left off from over the weekend. We got a win over Edgewood and got down early against Indian Creek, but had a great comeback despite losing,” Roberts continued.
“We played a pretty high level of basketball for the last two-and-a-half quarters. That was our goal tonight, to play all four quarters at that level. We came out tonight very early on and did that.”
Senior Skylar Fleischman attributes the game to teamwork. She believes they’re finally mastering the type of collective play necessary to be a winning team. In addition, the squad is learning to keep up the pressure at every moment on the court.
“I think we all played collectively. Everyone was positive the entire game and we were just knocking down shots. We were playing together and that was the big concept that we hadn’t really mastered,” she said.
“We also just played hard all four quarters, which is something we haven’t mastered till now.”
Fleischman thinks they’ll be able to contend and best any team as long as they keep the same pattern.
“If we play like this, I think we can win sectionals. We just have to work hard in practice and keep pushing for that title,” she said.
Had they developed earlier in the season, their overall record may very well show a different story. Despite only going 1-4 in the Western Indiana Conference, Roberts is happy with how the team looked against their WIC rivals.
“We’re pleased with how we played with conference teams, so we’re looking to learn how to finish games and pull out the win. If we had played those games like we did tonight, they’d have at least a couple more conference wins on the board.”
The Eagles had taken WIC favorites Cloverdale to overtime in a nail biting back-and-forth battle, unfortunately losing steam in the final minutes.
Knowing they can contend with any team, Roberts believes January is a month where they can get into a rhythm as they build toward sectionals.
“I feel like the month of January is traditionally a month where we can really get into a rhythm. Our schedule is set up where we’re at least playing a couple of games a week with no big breaks or layoffs. So even if it’s a lot of games to finish out the home stretch, I think it’s good for us, because the more they play, the more they seem consistent,” he said.
“I think it’s important for them to stay focused, and they say it themselves. They need to play at a high level all of the time and not just in spurts or certain moments.”
