BANGS – The Brownwood Lady Lions bounced back from Friday’s road loss at Lorena and denied the Bangs Lady Dragons their first win streak of the season in a 50-18 decision Saturday afternoon.
Despite Brownwood’s third win in five outings, 12th-year head coach Heather Hohertz found plenty of areas in which the Lady Lions can still improve.
“We were inconsistent with our effort and started off really flat,” Hohertz said. “I know we had a game last night but that’s no excuse because we’re normally in tournament play right now. We have to come out with energy and we lacked that in the first quarter. We had to go into our 22 press to get us going and that helped a little bit, but I’m still not satisfied with our inconsistent energy and effort from the team as a whole.”
Bangs, which was coming off a 40-31 win at Grape Creek Tuesday, was limited to just three first-half points. The Lady Dragons did not score the entire second quarter, or for the final 11:11 of the opening half as Brownwood built a 25-3 halftime cushion. Bangs also committed 19 of its 32 turnovers over the first two quarters, and finished the game just 7 of 21 at the free throw line.
“We put pressure on them full court wise, trying to not let them get to the paint, and that opened up the game for us,” Hohertz said.
Offensively, the Lady Lions shot 30 percent (17 of 56) from the floor, including 29 percent (7 of 24) from three-point land, while knocking down 56 percent (9 of 16) of their free throws.
“We’re great shooters when we get our feet set and shoot the ball,” Hohertz said. “We work on it every single day in practice. Against Lorena we struggled because we wanted to get to the paint with three people on us instead of settling for the outside shot. We did a little better at that today, finding the open shooter, kicking it out, then stepping up and knocking it down.”
Brooke Price and Alexa Arreola led Brownwood with 12 points apiece followed by Mady Pyle with 10, Tessa Goodwin with eight, Kynslee Walker with four and Naysa Leach with two points.
Bangs received eight points from Brooklann Mullins, five from Maggie Morales, four from Bailey Mendieta, and one point from Audrey Ivey.
Clinging to a 4-3 lead with 3:11 left in the opening quarter, Brownwood responded with the final 21 points of the first half. Two three-pointers from Pyle, along with one by Price, capped the first quarter for the Lady Lions, who led 14-3 after one frame.
Bangs ended a 11:42 scoreless drought just 31 seconds into the third period on a free throw by Mullins, while Morales converted the Lady Dragons’ first field goal in a 12:26 span with 6:47 left in the third period – matching Bangs’ first-half point total.
The third quarter was the best offensively for the Lady Dragons, as they tallied nine points and trailed 40-12 heading into the fourth period.
The Lady Lions are back in action at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Wall.
The Lady Dragons will return to action after the Thanksgiving break with a trip to Abilene Christian on Tuesday, Dec. 1.
