The Brownwood Lady Lions kicked off the TexasBank Holiday Classic Tuesday morning at Warren Gym with a resounding 64-46 victory over De Leon.
“It was really good that we got to have practice yesterday,” said Lady Lions 13th-year head coach Heather Hohertz. “We got our legs underneath us and did a lot of shooting.”
The extra work paid off as Brownwood (13-7) shot 46 percent (23 of 50) from the floor, including 54 percent (20 of 37) inside the three-point arc and 23 percent (3 of 13) from long range. The Lady Lions also knocked down 78 percent (15 of 19) of their free throws.
Brownwood pulled down 32 rebounds as well and committed 14 turnovers, while forcing 16 turnovers with five coming on steals.
Jaylen Savage led the charge with 18 points followed by 14 from Mady Pyle, 13 from Tessa Goodwin, seven from Lexi Greer, four each from Dakota Simpson and Brianna Castaneda and two points apiece for Kynslee Walker and Lilly Brasher.
“Jaylen came out big today and really established herself on the block,” Hohertz said. “That’s something we talked about before the game and I thought she stepped up. She likes to be timid sometimes and finesse, but I told her to go to the rim and go through somebody. As the game went on she definitely started doing that a lot more. She still missed some easy shots, but she played a lot better under there.”
De Leon (4-7) was sparked by 18 points from Emme Gilmore, 14 from Baylee Burrow, eight from Haven Pounds, and three each from Kambree Barnes and Gabbi Reyna.
“We stood too much defensively and gave up way too many three-pointers,,” Hohertz said. “Our hands were down and we weren’t contesting shots. We have to fix that before this afternoon’s game.”
The Lady Lions are back in action at 5:20 p.m. at Warren Gym as they square off with Coleman.
Brownwood led 13-9 after one quarter, sparked by a trio of three-pointers from Pyle, who made her return to the lineup.
“It was really good to have our shooter back,” Hohertz said of Pyle. “She missed the last two games because of a concussion. Just to see her first shot go up and through the hoop, that gave her confidence and it was good seeing her out there knocking down threes again.”
The Lady Lions strung 13 points in a row together to open a 22-9 advantage with 5:49 left in the first half. Brownwood carried a 31-20 edge into halftime as Goodwin contributed nine points in the second quarter alone.
Leading 38-26 with 5:23 left in the third, the Lady Lions reeled off 14 consecutive points and held De Leon scoreless for a 4:29 stretch to push the advantage to 52-26 – the biggest cushion of the game for Brownwood. Scoring during the spurt were Savage, Walker, Castaneda, Brasher and Simpson.
“We talked at halftime about pushing our lead so we could get some rotation in and out so we can save our legs,” Hohertz said. “I thought they stepped up off the bench and played with good energy.”
The Lady Lions led 52-32 going into the fourth quarter and De Leon got no closer than 17 points down the stretch.
On Wednesday, the Lady Lions will tangle with Valley Mills at 10:40 a.m. and Fort Worth Nolan Catholic at 6:40 p.m. with both games taking place in the Brownwood Coliseum.
