The Lions (12-8, 3-2) remained in a tie for second place in the District 6-4A standings along with Lampasas (17-3, 3-2) – a 40-34 winner over Stephenville (14-7, 2-3) Friday – with three league games left on the schedule.
Brownwood trailed 15-12 after one quarter and 26-20 at halftime, but grabbed a 40-35 lead through three quarters and tacked on 27 more points in the fourth period.
“We tried to pick up the tempo a little bit to our tempo,” Dalleh said. “I told them at halftime, when we didn’t throw the ball over the gym and got shots better things happen. There were many possessions in the first half where we didn’t even get a shot off. The big thing is we had the size advantage on them, so why not use it, and that’s what we did in the second half. That was huge on the inside.”
Jakob Hataway led the Lions with 17 points trailed by Christian Kinzler and Luke Moss with 13 points apiece, Bryson Monroe and Zach Porter with 10 points each, and Michael Felts chipped in four points.
Gatesville (5-17, 0-5) received 11 points from Jack Carroll and nine each from Si Sheets and Logan Edwards.
As for reaching 100 wins as head coach as his alma mater, Dalleh said, “It’s not about me, it’s about the kids. They bought into what I’m trying to do. A hundred wins is a lot, especially in one place, and I appreciate that fact, but it’s not about me.”
Brownwood is off until Friday when it hosts Stephenville, a rematch of the Lions’ 56-43 loss in the district opener on Jan. 19.
“We need to turn that into a win next Friday, that’s a huge game,” Dalleh said. “The kids are kind of bitter about it, we’ve played a lot better at times since then. That game, I don’t know what was going on with us but we’ve figured some things out. We’re going to have to take care of the basketball and give ourselves a chances to score, and when we do that good things happen.”