By Jeremy Shapiro
DANVILLE — Brownsburg scored the first 12 points of the game on its way to an easy 49-22 victory over Danville in the first round of the Hendricks County Tournament Tuesday.
The Bulldogs’ full-court press helped Brownsburg build a 17-1 second quarter lead, and Danville never got back into the game. The Warriors again had trouble with turnovers, throwing the ball away 25 times.
“We’ve got to get better at handling the ball,” said Danville coach Mark Callighan. “Opposing teams know he have trouble so we expected the press. We need to limit the amount of turnovers. We had 34 against Plainfield.”
Brownsburg (1-2) did not press in losses earlier this season to Decatur Central and Ben Davis. But Tuesday their presence in the backcourt disrupted or at least distracted the Warriors guards.
“This was the first time we used our press,” Brownsburg coach Amy Brauman. “They got their hands up and got some tips on the ball in the passing lanes.”
The Bulldogs advance to face Cascade in the next round at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Getting a victory Tuesday was a big step. Brownsburg only won four games last year, and suffered its first loss to Danville this decade.
Ryne Carr had 10 points as did freshman Stephanie Mavunga.
“She did a nice job posting up and getting rebounds,” Brauman said. “She’s athletic and she made some nice moves to the bucket. I thought she worked hard to get open and get some shots.”
Amy Kramer tried to get the Warriors offense on track, but she struggled with her shot missing five of her first six attempts. She had a nice fourth quarter to end with nine points.
Callighan said he wanted to see more effort from his team than in the loss to Plainfield Friday.
“We wanted to see focus and great effort,” he said. “I thought we did much better on those two things.”
