The Brownwood Lady Lions shaved a 15-point halftime deficit to a single bucket early in the fourth period, but the Merkel Lady Badgers withstood the change to capture a 55-42 victory Tuesday at the Brownwood Coliseum.

“We talked at halftime about the first four minutes being important,” said Lady Lions 12th-year head coach Heather Hohertz, whose team faced a 35-20 deficit at intermission. “I thought we came out OK and fought back there toward the end of the third quarter, but we can’t go through slumps and go up and down and have negative plays on offense. We can’t get a steal and end up turning it over, we have to be better than that.”

Playing their first game since a 35-29 win over Abilene Wylie on Dec. 18 at Warren Gym, the Lady Lions (6-8) did not yield a field goal in the third period as the lead for Merkel (7-5) shrank to 37-33. Then, in the fourth quarter, the Lady Lions registered the first bucket of the final stanza to creep within 37-35.

“Nothing changed (defensively in the second half) other than getting up and actually doing what we’re supposed to do and being at the assignments we’re supposed to be at,” Hohertz said. “We just weren’t doing that in the first half, we were on our heels. I know we had a five-day layoff but that’s no excuse. Everyone’s tired right now and it comes down to who wants it the most. There for spurts we wanted it more than they did, but we didn’t finish the game the way we needed to finish.”

Tessa Goodwin led Brownwood with 14 points followed by Jaylen Savage with nine, Kynslee Walker with five, Brooke Price with four, Alexa Arreola and Lindsey Larose with three each and Naysa Leach and Mady Pyle both with two points.

For Merkel, Alyssa O’Malley logged a game-high 19 points trailed by Alyssa White and Kyleig Mauldin with 12 apiece, Avery Holloway with seven, Sydnee Gilbreath with three, and Alaunna White with two points.

A three-pointer by Arreola with 5:48 left in the first half allowed Brownwood to draw even at 17 after trailing 15-12 after one quarter. Merkel, however, went on a 16-1 run to open a 33-18 lead. Each team added a bucket before intermission.

“We started the game really well,” Hohertz said. “It was a little sloppy but I thought we competed in the first quarter. We relaxed in the second and that was the difference in the game. We started turning the ball over, we started taking poor shots that allowed them to get out and shoot some layups and pull ahead of us.”

In the third period, Merkel mustered just one free throw each from Alyssa White and O’Malley, while committing seven of its 17 turnovers.

Brownwood gradually chipped away at Merkel’s lead, moving within single digits, 36-27, on an offensive putback by Goodwin at the 2:13 mark. Then, in the final minute of the quarter, Goodwin again scored off another offensive board and Pyle sank two free throws.

Savage’s bucket with 7:23 left in the contest brought the Lady Lions within 37-35, but a bucket from O’Malley and a trey from Holloway quickly extended Merkel’s lead back to seven points, 42-35, with 6:11 left.

Leach registered her only bucket with 5:58 to go to trim the deficit to 42-37, but Merkel responded with seven straight points to stretch the lead back to a dozen, 49-37, with 4:31 to go. Brownwood got not closer than 10 points the rest of the contest.

The Lady Lions’ scheduled game Thursday against Graham has been pushed up to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Warren Gym.

“I challenged them in the locker room, it’s a quick turnaround against a good Graham team,” Hohertz said. “Wylie beat Merkel and we lost to them, and Merkel beat Graham, so it’s going to be an interesting game tomorrow.”