The Brownwood Lions reeled off their third consecutive District 6-4A victory, avenging an earlier road loss to the Stephenville Yellow Jackets with a 61-47 triumph Friday night at Warren Gym.
The victory moves Brownwood (13-8, 4-2) into sole possession of second place in the 6-4A standings, a game and a half behind No. 19 Glen Rose (21-2, 5-0) – a 60-57 winner over Lampasas Friday – which visits Warren Gym at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday in the home finale.
“This was a team win for sure,” said Lions head coach Nadir Dalleh. “Everybody was involved, there was a great crowd, and it was a fun night. The kids are playing hard, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Stephenville (15-8, 3-4) is alone in fourth place in the district standings following the loss, a half-game back of Lampasas (17-4, 3-3).
The Lions were led by Christian Kinzler’s 19 points, with 13 coming in the first half, followed by Bryson Monroe with 13, Zach Porter with 12, Jakob Hataway with seven, Luke Moss with six and Micheal Felts with four points.
“They didn’t help down on (Kinzler) in the first half and if you don’t do that, he’s way bigger so let’s take advantage of it and we did,” Dalleh said. “We even got Luke Moss in on it a little bit.”
The Yellow Jackets received 14 points from Ryder Lambert, but leading scorers Trace Morrison and Grayson Traweek were held to seven and three points, respectively.
“The key tonight was to slow down (Morrison) and Felts and Porter tag-teamed on him,” Dalleh said. “He only had a few points and that was huge to slow him down. They struggled a little bit because of it.”
Thanks to a run of 13 consecutive points in the first half, the Lions were able to build a 34-18 halftime advantage. The Lions’ largest lead of the game, 41-22, occurred with 5:31 left in the third period, but Stephenville answered with 13 of the final 15 points to trim the deficit to 43-35 heading into the fourth quarter.
“We get a big lead and we just can’t get that killer instinct to put them down,” Dalleh said. “I told the guys at halftime their guys could shoot the ball and get back in it in a hurry and that’s exactly what they did.”
Brownwood did piece together a couple of runs in the fourth period, including the first seven points of the final frame. A bucket in the paint from Kinzler, a three-pointer from Monroe, and a no-look, over-the-shoulder pass from Hataway to Porter for a layup made the score 50-35 in favor of the Lions with 7:01 remaining.
Later, after Stephenville crept within 51-41, the Lions strung together eight consecutive points for a 59-41 cushion with 2:26 left. Porter started the surge with a pair of free throws, Hataway added a bucket, and Moss scored twice inside following a pair of offensive rebounds.
Looking ahead to the rematch with Glen Rose, a game the Lions lost 45-36, Dalleh said, “It’s going to be Senior Night and I hope the guys are looking forward to it cause I sure am. The key with them is handling their pressure, they try to pick up steals and we did a good job with that. We just missed some key shots at their place, stuff we’re used to knocking down and that we did tonight. Now we need that to carry over.”
