SWEETWATER – Falling behind by double figures with less than 30 seconds left in the first half of Tuesday night’s Region I-4A girls basketball bi-district playoff contest, the Brownwood Lady Lions rallied to draw even with the Lubbock Estacado Lady Matadors with 3:52 left in the third quarter. Soon after, Brownwood went through a 7:24 dry spell without a field goal which sparked a 17-1 Estacado run as the Lady Matadors pulled away for a 56-38 first-round victory.
“We played our tails off,” said Lady Lions 14th-year head coach Heather Hohertz. “We played our game plan to perfection for almost three full quarters and for whatever reason that last 10 minutes we stopped blocking out like we needed to and started giving them layups. But we gave ourselves a chance and that’s all you can ask for when only one player on this team ever had any playoff experience.”
Leading 13-12 after one quarter, District 6-4A third seed Brownwood (17-19) found itself down 25-15 with 23 seconds left before the half. Kimber Green’s driving bucket and foul with two seconds left before intermission allowed the Lady Lions to close the gap to 25-18 at halftime.
Brownwood then began the second half with nine of the first 11 points to catch District 5-4A runner-up Lubbock Estacado (22-11) just over midway through the third period. The frame began with a three-pointer from Mady Pyle, who led all Lady Lions with 16 points. A Sidney Windham free throw made the score 27-22 with 6:46 to go in the third, then Hannah Deen chipped in a bucket at the 5:55 mark to bring the Lady Lions within one possession, 27-24. Following a scoreless two-minute stretch by both teams, Pyle drained another trey to knot the score at 27.
“We can always give ourselves a chance to compete, no matter who’s on the court, if we continue to play hard,” Hohertz said. “We might not have been the most skilled team on the court, we were outmanned in most of the games we played, but we competed. If you continue to compete you’re going to be successful, especially after the game of basketball in life.”
After Brownwood tied the score, Estacado fired back with an 8-2 spurt to regain a 35-29 cushion. Pyle then buried her third trey of the quarter to bring Brownwood within 35-32 with 45 seconds left in the third period.
Brownwood would not convert a field goal again until 1:21 remained in the contest, mustering just four free throws in that span while Estacado began to dominate in the paint offensively with its size, leading to easy buckets and several second-chance opportunities.
“Estacado was physical and that’s something we lacked this year, but it is what it is and that’s the lineup we were dealt,” Hohertz said. “We fought, but Estacado’s post just took over and that was the difference in the ball game. They finished with 14 offensive rebounds, and we gave it our best shot, but you can’t give up 14 offensive rebounds and be successful.”
Kayden Sherman led the charge for Estacado with 22 points, all on buckets less than five feet from the hoop, while Lyfe Hamilton added five points and Zykeya Hunt and Cyvaeah Johnson chipped in four points each from within the paint.
The Lady Lions finished the game shooting 33 percent (11 of 33) from the field, including 30 percent (4 of 13) on three-pointers, and 60 percent (12 of 20) at the free throw line. Brownwood coughed up the ball 25 times and recorded 18 rebounds and 13 steals, while dishing out two assists.
Along with Pyle’s 16 points, Green scored nine, Deen and Icess Hall contributed four points each, Windham and Kassidy Wooten tacked on two points apiece, and Miranda Northcutt added a free throw to the tally.
Tuesday’s game concluded the careers of the Lady Lions’ two seniors, Pyle and Wooten.
“Mady’s been on varsity for three years and she was ready to play tonight,” Hohertz said. “She helped us stay in the game with big shots. Her and Kass have been big leaders with this young group, leading them and showing them how this program is supposed to run. Throughout the year they’ve done that. They may not have been as vocal as I wanted them to be at times, but they did it by example to help the young ones come along.
