Staff photo / Brian Yauger Badger senior Gabriella Miller (0) drives to the hoop while being defended by Mustangs senior Mia DelGarbino. Miller had a game-high 25 points for the Braves in a game on Thursday night.

VERNON — While it’s been an up-and-down season for the Badger Braves, the team is entering the tournament on a high note, capping off the regular season with a 51-35 victory over Mathews on Thursday.

“We’ve sort of had an up-and-down year, but I feel like we’re playing our better basketball here towards the stretch run, which is always a good thing,” Braves coach Pat Carney said. “We’ve had a lot of adversity to go through this year, obviously losing Avery Rice, who was our leading scorer, to an injury, but everybody else has sort of stepped up. We play a lot of sophomores, and they seem to be getting better every game, and getting more confident.”

It was the Gabriella Miller show to start things off, with the senior scoring 18 of the team’s 23 first-half points. Miller finished with a game-high 25.

“Gabby is our leader,” Carney said. “She’s what makes us go, as you can see tonight, she’s a great leader for us on and off the floor.

“It’s easy to coach when you have someone that’s able to just take over a game, you just kind of give her the ball and let her do her thing. I mean, there was nothing I was doing. It was just Gabby being Gabby and just making spectacular plays out there, taking it into her own hands, and she put up a lot of points there for us. We’re successful when she’s going at a high level.”

Senior Sophie Stanhope added 11 points for the Braves, who moved to 9-13 with the victory and 7-7 in Northeastern Athletic Conference play.

With a young crop of players, Carney is optimistic about the future of the program.

Getting the young players some tournament experience in the coming days will be invaluable going forward. And while the future is exciting, Badger’s eyes are on extending this season as long as they can.

“We’re obviously playing a lot of girls that have never played varsity before, and I think throughout the year we’ve made some growth,” Carney said. “I’m looking forward to the younger ones we have coming back for next year and the next few years, but hopefully we can just carry the momentum from tonight into the tournament.”

Mathews (4-17) concludes its regular season tonight on the road against Fairport Harbor. They open the tournament with Lisbon.

Junior Rilee Paddock led the Mustangs with 15 points.

Over the next two games, Mathews coach Steve Sponsler wants to see more confidence in his girls. The talent is there, but he sees a lack of confidence that’s impeding them.

“They need to relax,” he said. “They’re just wound too tight. It’s the same old thing every night. We’re just wound too tight, and we don’t finish well. I have all the confidence in the world in them, but they don’t have that confidence in themselves, and it shows when they go for a shot and everything we do, they’re tight. So they just have to relax.”