Ratchet up the intensity: Brown County takes control by wearing down Central with defense

MT. STERLING, Ill. — Brown County boys basketball coach Jeff Bottorff feared a championship hangover.

The Hornets entered Monday’s game against Camp Point Central fresh off of a Beardstown Tournament championship in which they defeated Winchester West Central — the reigning Class 1A state champion — in Saturday’s title game and won four games in five days.

Over the course of the opening eight minutes Monday, Bottorff’s fear became a reality. The Hornets trailed the Panthers 14-12 after the first quarter.

“We came out flat, which I was afraid of after last week,” Bottorff said.

That’s when senior guard Maverick Henry and the rest of the Hornets heard Bottorff’s message loud and clear.

“We started off a little slow, and Coach got on us a little bit,” Henry said. “He was disappointed in our effort, but that just got us going even more.”

The Hornets ratcheted up the pressure, forced three turnovers in the first 19 seconds and 10 total in the second quarter and went into halftime on a 16-4 run. 

The hangover was gone.

The Hornets went on to rout the Panthers 62-34 to stay undefeated.

“I told the group of them in that first quarter, ‘You’ve got one minute to show me something, or you’re all coming out,’” Bottorff said. “They respond. They’re warriors. It’s a great thing.”

A Tanner Sitze jumper — his only points of the first half — gave the Hornets a 16-14 lead with seven minutes left in the second quarter.

“We just kept running and running, and you could see it start to wear on (Central) a little bit,” Bottorff said.

Hornets sophomore point guard Carter Havens and his teammates never let up.

“Coach told us to bring the energy,” Havens said. “We know how good our defense is, and we knew we had to rush them. That’s what we did. We caused turnovers, and that led to easy layups. That’s all we have to do.”

Central coach James Barnett said his team handled Brown County’s “40 Minutes of Hell” style, which involves constant full-court pressure and trapping, rather well in the first quarter, but the Panthers got sped up in the second quarter.

“We started playing faster than how we wanted to,” Barnett said. “In the first quarter, we had composure. We took care of the ball when we beat the press. We got into our offense, and we did the things we wanted to do. In the second quarter, we started trying to force passes that weren’t there in the press break. We were making early decisions on the offensive side instead of reversing the ball like we talked about wanting to do. 

“When we were taking our time and slowing down on the offensive end, we were getting post touches, we were getting the things we wanted. When we started moving fast, that’s when the turnovers happened. I think our legs kind of went out at that time, and when your legs go, your mind goes, and you start making bad decisions.”

That is precisely the goal of Brown County’s approach.

“That’s how we want to play,” Bottorff said. “We have a lot of depth, so that allows us to keep playing that way, and teams that don’t have that depth, my hope is in the second half, we start to get into their legs, they break down a little bit physically and mentally, and hopefully we can capitalize.”

That depth showed in the Hornets’ scoring distribution. Havens led Brown County with 10 points, eight of which came in the first half. Four other Hornets — Henry, Matt Boylen, Michael Kassing and Jackson McNeff — scored at least eight points.

“Everybody can score. Nobody has to do all the work,” Henry said. “That’s what sets us apart from other teams.”

That depth combined with the Hornets’ relentlessness defense gives Henry confidence the Hornets (5-0) can keep rolling.

“We can go out and compete with the best teams,” Henry said. “We’ve proven that we can be one of the best teams in the area. People are not going to want to face us. They don’t want to face the 40 Minutes of Hell that we put on these guys. They can see it causes a lot of turnovers, and they won’t want to play us.”

Brown County will turn right around and face Griggsville-Perry on Tuesday.

“It will be a little different type of game,” Bottorff said of that matchup with the Tornadoes. “They like to run that 2-2-1 press, and they’ll play some zone against us. They’ve got some good shooters. Where Camp Point is very physical and wants to control the pace, I think Griggsville will want to run more with us.”

That does not change the Hornets’ approach.

“I told our kids after the game, the recipe doesn’t change,” Bottorff said. “We just have to play our game.”