Trailing by 18 points in the fourth period, the Brownwood Lions shaved the deficit to six but could not complete their comeback as the No. 19 Glen Rose Tigers clinched the District 6-4A boys basketball championship with a 43-35 victory Tuesday on Senior Night at Warren Gym.
Brownwood (13-9, 4-3) managed just 14 points over the first three quarters, including going scoreless in the third, but put 21 points on the board in the fourth quarter.
“That was about as a bad of a three quarters that we could play offensively,” said Lions fifth-year head coach Nadir Dalleh. “We had 14 points at the third in the our gym and that is awful. It’s not like we didn’t have shots, we had all the shots we could get.”
In the first 2:49 of the fourth period, the Lions scored 14 points – matching their total from the first three periods – to reduce the Glen Rose lead to 38-28. The Tigers owned a 32-14 advantage when the final quarter began.
“What turned it around a little bit is we picked up the pace a little bit and put a little full court pressure on and got some deflections and some steals and that helped us go score a little bit,” Dalleh said. “But I told them on the bench I was a little too late on that, I should have called it a lot earlier.”
Down 41-28 with 4:34 to go, the Lions held Glen Rose without a point until the final six seconds, when the Tigers tacked on two free throws for the final eight-point margin. Brownwood had crept within six points, 41-35, with 26 seconds remaining following a free throw by Luke Moss.
The Lions had a chance to get within one possession, but a missed three-pointer foiled that opportunity.
“We competed, we fought back and we didn’t get blown out and that’s big for moving on to Friday for sure,” Dalleh said.
Jakob Hataway led the Lions with 11 points but fouled out with 4:27 to go. Christian Kinzler also finished in double figures with 10 points trailed by Bryson Monroe with eight, Moss with three, Michael Felts with two and Zach Porter with one point.
Glen Rose received 12 points from Caden Schinagel, 10 points from Caden Smith and eight points from Kolton Mooney to spark their effort.
Tuesday’s game was the last at Warren Gym for seniors Porter, Felts, Tanner Roberts, Asher Choate, Blake Brasher, Bryan Healer, and Nathan Wheelington.
“If you look at all of them, you don’t have too many groups that actually get along no matter who they are, and that’s what this group does,” Dalleh said. “They’re big on teamwork, you could hear them talking tonight and helping each other out. Kids have stepped up in certain roles in certain places and those guys have accepted their roles. It’s a great senior class for other kids to watch.”
With the loss, the Lions will now visit Lampasas (18-4, 4-3) at 6:15 p.m. Friday with the second playoff seed from District 6-4A at stake. If Brownwood – which won the first meeting 69-56 at Warren Gym on Jan. 26 – falls, the Lions could face Stephenville (15-8, 3-4) again to decide the third and fourth playoff seeds if the Yellow Jackets upset Glen Rose (23-2, 7-0) Friday,
“We’ve got Lampasas and that will be a tough place to play,” Dalleh said. “They put pressure on you that you don’t see all year long. To be able to handle that and take care of business in their place is going to be a challenge, but our guys are going to bounce back. I’m confident in that.”
