By BRAD BAUGHMAN, for The Democrat
The Brown County High School girls basketball team sputtered in the first half of their home game against Mitchell Dec. 3, but the Eagles found a gear they liked in the second half and cruised past the Bluejackets, 56-35.
Going 10 days without playing a game may have contributed to some of the first-half issues.
“It looked like we hadn’t played in about a week and a half — a little sloppy, a little out of sync at times,” said Eagles coach Matt Roberts. “It’s always tough to stay in rhythm with a layoff like that.”
Eagles senior forward Gracie Matlock said the layoff caused the team to lose momentum. “Going into a game after having a week off, we were definitely all kind of laid back and tired especially, and we came in without much energy.”
One Eagle not affected by the long break was junior guard Anna Fleetwood. Fleetwood, who got her team on the board with a three-pointer three minutes into the game, scored all eight of the Eagles’ first-quarter points.
Two consecutive buckets by Aubrey Hollander got the second quarter off to a productive start. The Bluejackets scored the next nine points, and the teams traded baskets late in the quarter to finish the half tied at 20.
In the second half, the Eagles found the energy they had been lacking, posting 36 points and limiting Mitchell to 15. Roberts attributed the offensive outburst to a dialed-up defense.
Employing an active 2-3 half-court zone was instrumental. “We have to generate some offense with our defense. The defense has got to crank it up a notch,” Roberts said. The zone “did a really nice job disrupting the flow of what they wanted to do. That allowed us to get out in transition a little bit more, get some easy opportunities, get to the rim.”
It definitely disrupted the flow that Bluejackets 6’2” sophomore center Madison Robertson had going during the first half. Robertson had seven first-half points on a variety of nifty post moves, but rarely touched the ball in the second half against the zone.
It also enabled the Eagles to get to the free throw line nine times after shooting no free tosses in the first half.
While it was Anna Fleetwood who kept the Eagles in the game early, it was senior guard Allison Stogsdill who caught fire in the second half and helped the team to separate itself from Mitchell.
Stogsdill, held scoreless in the first half, scored 14 second-half points that included two three-pointers, a two-point field goal, and a perfect 6 for 6 from the free throw line.
For the game, Brown County did most of its damage from long range. Four different Eagles combined to make 11 three-pointers, while the team recorded only eight made two-point field goals.
Three Eagles hit double figures in the win, led by Stogsdill and Anna Fleetwood with 14 apiece. Freshman point guard Abby Fleetwood tossed in 12, while fellow freshman Avery Patterson supplied bench scoring, knocking down a three-pointer and a two-point field goal.
Jordyn Sarver scored eight points, and Robertson and Lilly Zeeks chipped in seven each to lead the Bluejackets.
With the victory, the senior-led Eagles improve to 4-1 on the season.
The early success is no surprise to Matlock, who says about her fellow classmates: “We’ve been playing together since fifth or sixth grade, so we’re all really close and we’re all friends outside of school. We really do mesh together, and we know how to play with each other because we’ve been doing it for so long.”
