For the second straight District 6-4A outing, the Brownwood Lions ran into trouble in the second half, as the Graham Steers erased a seven-point halftime deficit and chalked up a 64-63 victory at Warren Gym Tuesday night.
The Lions (13-12, 0-2), who dropped their sixth game in a row, led 35-28 at halftime, but Graham (12-11, 2-1) closed the gap to 46-45 heading into the fourth period. There, the Steers scored the first seven points to open a 52-46 advantage and forced Brownwood into catch-up mode.
Despite Graham missing 11 of 13 free throws in the last two minutes of the contest, the Lions’ comeback bid fell short. Brownwood crept within 62-61 on a pair of Casey Friebal free throws with 22 seconds left, and again at 64-63 with five seconds to go on two shots from the charity stripe by Noah Pyle.
“I can’t fault the effort, the effort I love, but the mental mistakes can drive you crazy and cause you to lose some sleep,” said Lions head coach Will Parker. “Hopefully the guys will know how proud I am of them with their effort and understand the importance of needing to clean up everything else.”
Weston Wolf led the charge for Brownwood with a career-high 18 points followed by Friebel and Durham Brown with 14 apiece, Elias Perez with nine, Ross Strasner with five, Pyle with two and Bennett Windham with one point.
For Graham, Cooper Corley scored a game-high 20 points trailed by Ty Thompson with 13 points.
The Lions will hit the court again at 7:15 p.m. Friday at No. 23 Brock (18-8, 2-0) – a 52-48 winner over Glen Rose (18-7, 1-1) Tuesday night.
