OT No. 2: Panthers outlast Braves

The weekend was full of overtime thrillers for the Corydon Central boys’ basketball team.
Friday night was a tight overtime loss to Class 2A No. 2 Clarksville. Saturday night, 3A No. 4 Corydon Central was on the winning end of an overtime game. This time, it took two overtimes to defeat 3A No. 7 Brownstown Central, 73-72.
The win earned the Panthers a 1-1 split in big Mid-Southern Conference games.
Corydon Central never had the lead in the overtime against Clarksville and didn’t again in the first OT versus Brownstown Central.
That all changed on the first possession of the second extra session against the Braves.
Making just one 3-pointer in the first 36 minutes of play, Corydon Central came up with a monstrous second one when Brayden Lander sank a right-wing triple.
‘I’ve been struggling with my shot lately,’ the senior said. ‘Once I hit that, I was on cloud nine.’
Lander’s fist pump down the court after the make to give Corydon Central a 63-60 lead made for excited teammates as well.
‘When it went in, I was pumped,’ Corydon Central guard Timothy Wiseman said. ‘I knew we needed some stops on defense because (Brownstown Central) can score the ball well.’
Brownstown Central came back to take the lead when Collin DeHart made four straight free throws. Ten seconds later, Tommy Wiseman was fouled and made both of his freebie attempts as well.
The big play came when Panther big man Bronson Kessinger converted a 3-point play with two minutes to play. A single free throw by Grant Robinson helped extend Corydon Central’s lead to 69-64.
Similar to the end of regulation, the Braves didn’t go away. DeHart hit a triple, followed by Bole Borden making two free throws to make the score 72-69 with 15 seconds left. A single by Timothy Wiseman made it a two-possession game. It was a good thing because Jacoby Shade netted a triple with 6.9 seconds left.
Brownstown Central had a shot to win late, but the attempt was off the mark.
‘Even though we didn’t pull it out last night, we played overtime then played double overtime tonight,’ Corydon Central coach Jamie Kolkmeier said. ‘Even if that shot goes down, we’ve done enough to get in position to win it and the kids know it. I’m glad it didn’t go in though. Our kids showed that is the heart and effort it will take to pull out a sectional.’
The win over the Braves avenged a dramatic 55-50 overtime loss in last year’s Class 3A Sectional.
‘Avenging from the sectional loss was good,’ Lander said. ‘We needed this win.’
Lander was among four Panthers to score in double figures, tallying 13 points. Timothy Wiseman led all scorers with 21 points, making 6 of 7 free throws.
Kessinger was impressive on both ends of the floor, scoring 19 points while pulling down a career-best 18 rebounds. Tommy Wiseman added 13 points and eight rebounds.
Corydon Central started the game off fast. Breaking the Brownstown Central press with passes over the top, the Panthers led 14-9 after one quarter. Timothy Wiseman did his damage versus the press knifing through defenders for lay-ups.
‘Brayden is the best kid I’ve seen looking up the floor with the ability to hit guys streaking down the court,’ Kolkmeier said. ‘He plays really strong, too. He gave us a lot of easy looks early.’
Kolkmeier figured Brownstown Central’s press was used to wear the Panthers down after facing speedy Clarksville the night before. Early on, the coach thought they flipped the script and wore down the Braves at times.
‘I thought our team stuck with it and played really hard,’ Kolkmeier said. ‘I don’t know that either team played really great, but you can’t play great when the other team is guarding the heck out of you all the time.’
Corydon Central was up by as many as 11 points in the second quarter, led by a run of six straight points from Kessinger.
Seeking to put the game away in the second half, Kessinger brought the house to its feet when he hammered home a two-handed dunk. Timothy Wiseman scored to end the third quarter, giving his team a 45-33 lead.
Holding the potent Brownstown Central offense to 33 points through three quarters was impressive, but the Braves awoke in the fourth.
They hit five three pointers, including three from Chas Schneider. Fighting back from 13 down, the Braves took a 54-52 lead when Cam Shoemaker stole a pass with two minutes to go for an easy two.
‘You get tired in these games and, when you get too low on screens or get busy watching the ball, you give up some threes,’ Kolkmeier said.
Corydon Central answered with an aggressive score by Timothy Wiseman with 1:35 to play.
Neither team scored in the closing 95 seconds, with the Braves holding possession for much of that time.
In the second overtime, Brownstown Central had the lead on three different occasions. The Panthers spent much of the four-minute OT without Kessinger, who was getting treated for leg cramps.
With less than a minute remaining, Kessinger returned to the floor to knot the game at 60 with 36 seconds left, leading to the second overtime.
Pulling out the win was key for the confidence of the highly ranked Panthers.
Schneider led the Braves in scoring with 15 points. As a team, Brownstown Central hit nine 3-pointers.
‘It was a lot better finish than last night,’ Timothy Wiseman said. ‘Losing the way we lost last night was not fun. To come back and win in the same fashion was really good for our team. We knew coming in it was a big weekend, playing two really, really good teams.’
The takeaway for the Panthers is they still have a shot at the MSC but will need help with Clarksville and Silver Creek still undefeated in league play.
‘Clarksville, us, Brownstown, Silver Creek along with North Harrison and Scottsburg that can beat you on a given night, make the conference really tough,’ Kolkmeier said. ‘A couple shots here and there, we’re on the opposite end of either result this weekend … Tonight, we were able to make big plays. At the end, it got to be a battle of attrition.’
Timothy Wiseman said he could feel the fatigue against the Braves.
‘The first half I was starting to feel it after getting pressed by their quick guards,’ he said. ‘At halftime, I kept my legs moving and finished strong.’
Although it isn’t March yet, the double up of difficult games is a preview of what could come in a deep Sectional 30.
‘This is what you are going to have to do in sectional,’ Kolkmeier said. ‘In our sectional, you are not going to have an easy one Friday night. If you get to that point and you’re able to be the team playing for a championship on Saturday, you’re going to play two hard games.’
The Panthers learned they can handle the pressure.
‘Both sets of kids probably feel this way; I’m tired,’ Kolkmeier said. ‘You get mentally exhausted. We sure wanted to fight and win this game, but it sure was a whole lot of fun. These are the kinds of games you want to play.’
Corydon Central has two MSC games this weekend. The first, the Panthers will travel to Eastern (Pekin) on Friday before returning home to face Charlestown on Saturday. Both games will tip at 7:30 p.m.

Brownstown Cent. 9 12 12 21 6 12 ‘ 72
Corydon Central 14 17 14 9 6 13 ‘ 73
Brownstown Central (11-2, 5-1 MSC) ‘ Schneider 15, DeHart 14, Shade 13, Snodgrass 11, Shoemaker 10, McCory 5, Borden 2, Klinge 2.
Corydon Central (11-2, 4-1) ‘ Ti. Wiseman 21, Kessinger 19, To. Wiseman 13, Lander 13, Lander 4, Coffman 2, Robinson 1.
3-point goals ‘ Brownstown Central 9 (Schneider 3, DeHart 2, Shade 2, Snodgrass, McCory); Corydon Central 2 (Ti. Wiseman, Lander).