Record-breaking basketball season marches into sectional for Brown County girls

MOUNT STERLING, Ill — Brown County’s record-breaking girls basketball season continues.

Friday night’s 69-41 victory over Biggsville West Central marked the first time in program history the No. 3-ranked Hornets had won back-to-back Class 1A regional championships.

The regional title further accents a season that has produced the most victories — 30 and counting — since girls started playing organized basketball in Mount Sterling in the winter of 1974-75.

Did anyone mention there’s a new individual single-season scoring leader at Brown County? That would be senior Katey Flynn, who fittingly wears No. 1. 

Flynn scored 18 points and was one of four Hornets in double figures against West Central. Flynn’s effort moved her into the catbird’s seat on the all-time single-season scoring chart with 604 points.

Want more? Brown County’s combined 57 victories the past two seasons are the most ever in back-to-back campaigns in the 48-year history of the girls program.

Oh, and one other thing of note that Hornets coach Dave Phelps wished to point out. This group of Brown County seniors — Katey and Klare Flynn, Gracie Hedden and Melanie Loehr — has won more games than any other class in school history. The Hornets have a 90-21 record during the past four years.

“It’s hard to put into words how proud I am of this team,” said Phelps, whose 183-101 record over 10 years is the winningest in program history. “This team has proven to be resilient, and they’ve proven to be tough. They always want to make each other better.”

Katey Flynn, who averages a team-best 18.3 points a game, picked up where her coach left off.

“We’ve all been playing together for a long time,” she said. “It’s so great to accomplish all of this together. We’ve been working for this.”

Brown County (30-3) advances to the Abingdon-Avon Sectional, where it will meet Elmwood (28-5) at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the semifinals. West Central bows out with a 19-14 record.

“We knew this would be an important step to get to the state tournament,” said Klare Flynn, whose 21 points led the Hornets. “We worked together, and we told each other we just had to be smart out there. We all have a lot of confidence in one another, and we lift each other up.”

Klare Flynn is averaging 16 points a game, and Hedden averages 11. 

Hedden (11) and 6-foot-1 sophomore center Ashlee Markert (11) were Brown County’s other double-figure scoers, combining for an additional 22 points. Markert (7) and Hedden (6) also hauled in a combined 13 rebounds.

At times, Hedden gets lost in all of the attention surrounding this year’s team. She stood out Friday night by providing a first-half spark that helped Brown County take a 27-11 halftime advantage.

“I’m so happy to be able to do all of this with the other seniors on this team,” Hedden said. “We knew we all had to step up.” 

Phelps may be proudest of Hedden and what she has accomplished. He pointed out she was a point guard when she was younger, and the ballhandling skills she developed at that position have served her well during her career. She’s been a valuable weapon when it comes time to breaking presses and cracking opposing defenses. Phelps knows when Katey Flynn, the regular point guard, needs help, he can always count on Hedden.

“Gracie has really blossomed as a complete player,” Phelps said. “She has improved so much. Since she was young, she has morphed into this wonderful player she is right now.”

Brown County never trailed in an extremely one-sided game. The Hornets were up by more than 20 points early in the third quarter and led 48-25 going into the final period.

Junior guard Shelby Bowman scored 33 of the Heat’s points, but she had just seven in the first half when she was constantly harassed by Katey Flynn on defense. She made six 3-point field goals, all after Brown County had built a sizable margin. Only two other Biggsville players registered field goals.

“Bowman is a good player, but she only had seven points against our zone,” Katey Flynn said.

Bowman came into the game averaging 28.3 points a game and has now scored 1,586 points in her career.

“We all knew we had to show up to stop Bowman,” Hedden said.

Brown County enters sectional play with 10 consecutive victories. The Hornets’ last loss was 36-32 to Central-Southeastern on Feb. 14.