GRAHAM – For the fourth time this season, and second game in a row, the Brownwood Lions eclipsed the century mark in scoring, establishing a new season-high in a 108-84 victory over Vernon in Region I-4A bi-district playoff action here Tuesday night.
The District 6-4A runner-up Lions (24-9) will move on to face District 7-4A champion Argyle (25-6) – a 65-28 winner over Benbrook Tuesday – in area playoff action at 7 p.m. Friday in Brock.
“I told the guys that 1992 banner (in Warren Gym) has been on my mind all season,” said Lions first-year head coach Will Parker. “Every morning I get there it’s the first one I see. It’s been 30 years since we’ve won an area championship and we get a chance to do that against a really good ball club. That’s where we want to be. We want to play the best to be the best, and that’s what it’s going to take.”
Luke Moss led the charge for Brownwood with 28 points, followed by 23 from Tristan Salinas – who drained five of the Lions’ eight three-pointers – 17 from Bryson Monroe, 12 from Christian Kinzler, 10 each from Jakob Hataway and Thad Hinds, seven points from Ike Hall, and one point by Weston Burns.
“I don’t think we settled on one particular way to score,” said Parker, whose team also connected on 26 of 33 free throw attempts. “Sometimes we can get caught in shooting threes, where we know we can get them. Today, if we were wide open and could catch and shoot and them in rhythm, let’s do that. But if not, let’s keep attacking the basket, and the guys did a good job of doing that.
“We didn’t have one guy out there doing it all. Tristan Salinas and Luke Moss, those two had good nights, Jakob Hataway handled the full court press all night. Thad coming in off the bench gave us some minutes and Ike Hall finally got to play some guard for us. He’s been having to play the four a lot and having him play the guard spot, that’s what he’s more comfortable with. He’s done everything we’ve asked of him, and all the guys played really well.”
For District 5-4A third seed Vernon (11-14), Adarius Williams poured in 21 points followed by Lavery Gonzales with 19, Julius Dawkins with 13, Kell Castleberry with 12, and Cross Durham with 10 points.
The Lions led 22-17 after one quarter but used a 35-point second period to build a 57-39 halftime cushion. In the third period, Brownwood pushed the lead to 20 points, 74-54, on a three-pointer by Salinas, but Vernon trimmed the deficit to 83-75 heading into the fourth quarter, thanks to a buzzer-beating three-pointer.
Any hopes of a continued Vernon rally ended quickly in the fourth period as Brownwood tallied the first six points – on a bucket by Kinzler and two free throws each from Hataway and Moss – to push the lead back to 14 points, 89-75.
Brownwood maintained a double-digit edge the rest of the way, thanks to allowing just nine points over the final eight minutes.
The Lions reached the century mark with 3:19 left when Salinas’ layup boosted the lead to 100-80.
Looking ahead to Argyle and areas where the Lions will need to improve to be successful, Parker said, “Turnovers, especially early in the game. We let teams hang in the game when we do that. We go on runs and then we kick the ball around and ruin our momentum. We just have to play smarter. Playing this fast, we’re going to turn the ball over. As a coach you want to be perfect but at the same time you have to be able to handle this style of play, for the good and the bad. We’ll be looking at rebounding, too. We gave up a lot of second-chance points. Those are the two things we’ve been focusing on all year, and they have to come together on Friday.”
