By MIKE HUTSELL
HENRYVILLE — Another night, another big run, another Borden sectional championship.
For the third time in three postseason games, the Braves put their opponent into a first-half hole and were never threatened after halftime.
On Saturday, the Braves stifled New Washington with a 16-4 second-quarter en route to a 63-40 win over the Mustangs in the Class A Henryville Sectional title game — claiming their second consecutive sectional crown with the win.
It was a fitting close to tournament marked by big runs for the defending champions. In Wednesday’s opening round Borden hit 16-of-20 first-half field goals in a 76-44 win over Rock Creek Christian. On Friday, Borden used a 21-0 sprint in the first half as it buried Lanesville in the semifinals, 60-40.
“We just continue to play well,” said Borden head coach. “For three games here, we may have seen us play as well as we possibly have this season. It’s good to see us peak at the right time — we talked about playing our best basketball at this time of year.”
Leading by just three after the first quarter, Borden put the clamps on before halftime.
The Braves scored the first five points of the second period and limited New Wash to just two field goals in the eight minute-stretch, outscoing the Mustangs 16-4 in the quarter for a 32-17 lead at intermission.
“It was another stretch where we were able to knock down some shots and get the tempo the way that we wanted it,” said Nash. “When we are able to do that, we can play the type of defense we want to play and try to force the other team into tough shots.”
Michael Chester poured in 14 of his career-high 26 points in the first two quarters. He made six of his first seven field goal attempts.
“It looked to me like (New Wash) was focusing its defense in other areas and it opened up the lane for me to attack the basket,” said Chester.
The second half became at bit of a coronation for the champs — who just a year ago were celebrating the school’s first sectional championship with a victory over South Central in the championship round — New Wash scored the opening four points of the second half but never managed to crawl back under double figures in the final two periods.
“It doesn’t get old, winning sectionals like this,” said a smiling senior Drake Potts after the victory. “You can’t really compare the two. Last year being the first one the school ever had was pretty sweet, but this one might be more important to me personally because it’s my senior year and I really wanted to go out with one more.”
The only thing new about winning this season was for Borden senior Chance Clark, who joined the Braves for his senior season and spent his first three years at Providence — missing the Braves’ march to Class A Final Four.
“I’m glad I could join on,” said Clark, who posted double-digit scoring in Borden’s first two sectional games and had six in the final. “Turned out to be a great decision to come here. I’ve enjoyed every minute on this team and it was great to see us come together this week and play as well as we have here.”
Two other Braves joined Chester in double figures in the win. Chris Beam finished with 11 and Lee Kirchgessner had his third double-digit game of the sectional with 10.
“We feel like we can get a different guy to do it for us any night,” said Nash. “Michael was the guy tonight but it can be any one of them any given time we take the floor. We have six seniors on this team and a junior (Dalton Wagoner) who played major minutes for us last year as a sophomore. Our balance can be a real key for us.”
Ethan Jones scored 10 for New Wash in the setback while sophomore Devin Freels finished with nine.
“I thought our defense was great,” said Nash. “We came in wanting to throw different looks at Freels and (Vincent) Minton and we did a great job of that.”
The Braves will look to keep the repeat trend alive on Saturday when they play in the Class A Loogootee Regional against Northeast Dubois. The Jeeps defeated Orleans in the Orleans Sectional final, 40-39.
The Braves won the regional title a year ago at North Daviess.
NEW WASHINGTON 13 4 9 14—40
BORDEN 16 16 11 20—63
New Washington — Radford 5, Jones 10, Bowman 3, Freels 9, Minton 6, Bower 2, Krohn 5, Woods 0, Wiggam 0, Hobbs 0, Hughes 0
Borden — Clark 6, Wagoner 9, Chester 26, Potts 0, Beam 11, Kirchgessner 10, Rich 0, Adams 0, B. Beam 1, Little 2, Martin 0
Three point field goals — New Washington 6 (Freels 2, Minton, Bowman, Krohn, Radford); Borden 5 (Kirchgessner 2, Chester 2, C. Beam)
Rebounds — New Washinton 15 (Jones 6); Borden 23 (Clark, Potts 6)
Turnovers — New Washington 16, Borden 7
