Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Brookville senior Ashlee Haupt drives to the basket during a game at National Trail on Monday, Jan. 22. Haupt scored a career-high 27 points to lead the Blue Devils to a 42-31 win.
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
National Trail’s Hannah Henderson puts up a shot during the Blazers game with Brookville on Monday, Jan. 22. Henderson finished with nine points, but Trail came up short, falling 42-31.
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
NEW PARIS — Ashlee Haupt scored a career-high 27 points, including all her team’s 14 points in the third quarter to lead Brookville to a 42-31 win over host National Trail on Monday, Jan. 22.
“Ashley, she’s our leader,” Josh Kummer, Brookville’s first-year head coach, said. “We rely on her to do a lot of things for us. She takes care of the ball. She attacks. She’s a great shooter and she’s one of our best defenders as well. She’s right there. She’s always kind of pointing out where we don’t see (things) when we’re out there on the court.”
The Blue Devis held a 10-7 lead after the opening quarter behind Haupt’s five point effort.
Brookville began the second quarter with a 6-2 run to push its lead to 17-9 with just over three minutes left in the half.
Trail closed the half on a 5-2 run to get within 19-14 at the break.
During the first 3 ½ minutes of the third quarter Trail went on a 10-5 run to tie the game at 24-all.
Haupt then scored nine straight points to give her team the lead for good at 33-24.
Brookville’s lead never slipped below five in the final quarter.
“I thought our team battled very well,” Kummer said. “I thought they fought through some adversity. I thought we came out and we executed the game plan. We got up and we pressured. We talked about making National Trail uncomfortable and not letting them get in any type of rhythm and I thought we did a really good of the job full court press in the first quarter. Then we kind of got into some foul trouble and we kind of had to back it off a little bit. Then we ran multiple different zones and executed multiple different zones better tonight than we have a lot of the season. I was really pleased with our communication throughout all of that. Without that it would break down to give up layups.”
In addition to her 27 points, Haupt had nine steals, five rebound and two assists.
Hunter Gardner had seven points and nine rebounds.
With the win, the Blue Devils improved to 7-10 on the season.
“We’re just trying to build up the girls and we’re trying to build up their confidence and get them to believe in themselves on a daily basis,” Kummer said. “Every day we talk about we’re not going to be perfect, but we want to get one day better every day. And I think at times like tonight, you can see that they’re buying into that, and they just continue to work hard.”
For National Trail, they had a balanced scoring attack with Kendyl Johnson and Hannah Henderson leading the way with nine points each. Josie Stiner added eight. Johnson led the team with eight rebounds, while Henderson added six.
Coach Ken Stewart said the turnover bug, which has been an issue all season, proved to be his team’s downfall once again.
But noted Haupt ultimately was the difference in the game.
“We had definitely an emphasis to focus our defensive effort against (number) five, I mean she had 27 points and 17 free throw attempts. So obviously, we didn’t do a very good job,” Stewart said.
The Blazers turned the ball over 20 times.
“It’s so frustrating because it’s been our problem for two years, and we just can’t seem to solve it,” Stewart said. “We can’t seem to calm down offensively and know that we’re in control of the ball. We teach all the right things and do all those things in practice, but there’s just something about when the lights come on for a game the girls are just panicking still. We keep working on it and keep trying to build their confidence knowing that they’re good enough players to not turn it over like that.”
Trail falls to 5-10 with the loss.
The Blazers were scheduled to play at Dixie on Thursday, Jan. 25 and will host Eaton on Saturday, Jan. 27.
Brookville is scheduled to return to SWBL play on Saturday when they host Oakwood.
Reach Eddie Mowen Jr. at 937-683-4061 and follow on X (formerly Twitter) @emowenjr.
