The Brownwood Lady Lions earned their fourth victory in the last five outings, and reached double digits in the win column with Tuesday night’s 48-30 triumph over the Coleman Bluekatts at Warren Gym.
The Lady Lions (10-4) led just 13-9 after one quarter and 23-17 at halftime, but pulled away in the second half, opening a 39-25 advantage through three periods.
“We were really slow, not active moving our feet and giving up too many offensive rebounds in the first quarter,” said Lady Lions head coach Heather Hohertz said. “I subbed a lot and the bench came in and did a good job of getting us going. Then we had to move to man to man to give us some energy. Going to man to man you have to play defense, you have to stay active and that was the motivator for them and the deciding factor.”
Down 9-5 with 1:29 left in the first quarter, the Lady Lions ended the opening frame and began the second with 11 straight points, including nine on a trio of three-pointers, to open a 16-9 edge just 14 seconds into the second quarter, and never trailed again.
Kimber Green led Brownwood with 10 points followed by Miranda Northcutt with eight, Hannah Deen and Trinity Roberts with seven apiece, Adyson Neel with six, Rylie Schaffer with five, Icess Hall with three and Kate Tindol with two points.
The Lady Lions shot 37 percent (17 of 46) from the floor, but 50 percent (6 of 12) from three-point land and a much improved 80 percent (8 of 10) at the free throw line, after hovering in the mid-50s percentage wise at the charity stripe in recent games.
“I was pleased with our three-point shooting at 50 percent, and 80 percent on free throws which we’ve struggled with,” Hohertz said.
Northcutt and Roberts have become focal points on the offense inside lately.
“Any time we’re in our dribble drive and we’re not getting downhill we want those two to be able to get to the paint and get to the block and score,” Hohertz said. “Coleman did a good job rotating and our guards did a really good job of finding our fives. We still have to finish the ball better, we were just 11 of 38 on two-pointers, which isn’t a very good percentage. We have to be able to finish layups if we’re getting fouled or not. We’re a really fun team to watch when that happens.”
Brownwood also yanked down 25 rebounds, created 16 steals, and turned over the ball just 13 times.
The Lady Lions’ lead reached double figures, 29-19, with 5:05 left in the third quarter on a short jumper Green. Brownwood’s lead later peaked at 20 points, 46-26, with 4:48 remaining in the contest on a three-pointer from Green.
Coleman received 13 points from Chaney Rosales, seven from Katy Elder, six from Lily Norris, three from Adelynn Thompson, and one point from Addi Cox.
Next for Brownwood is a 6:30 p.m. Friday home rematch with Class 2A No. 17 Goldthwaite, which defeated the Lady Lions, 62-46, at the Hamilton tournament on Nov. 18.
“Goldthwaite’s a really good team,” Hohertz said. “They’re fundamentally sound, have really good guards and play really good man to man defense. They shoot the ball really well so we’re going to have to be ready to play. Whether it be our 2-3 match-up or our man to man, we have to be ready to play defense.”
