The Brownwood Lady Lions are headed into the start of District 6-4A competition on a positive note, as they upended the Graham Lady Blues, 45-38, Wednesday afternoon in the pre-district finale.
“Our whole team was physical and that’s what I want to see,” said Lady Lions 12th-year head coach Heather Hohertz. “We were going to get rebounds, we were getting up off the ground and getting after it, we were exploding and getting to the rim, that’s how we have to play.”
Fresh off a 55-42 loss to Merkel Tuesday afternoon at the Brownwood Coliseum, the Lady Lions (7-8) buckled down against Graham (7-9). After yielding 16 points in the first quarter, Brownwood gave up just 19 the remainder of the contest.
“We talked before the game that we had to know where No. 12 (Maddie Mandela) and 21 (Kate Gober) were, and 12 came out and hit three three-pointers in the first half so that kind of busted the scouting the report,” Hohertz said. “We really focused on knowing where those two were and that was really the difference in the game.”
Gober led Graham with 14 points and Mandela chipped in 13, while Katie Coyac finished with five, Hannah Isom tallied four and Leah Holland added two.
Brownwood’s Tessa Goodwin led all scorers with 25 points.
“We talked last night after the game about how she has to be more aggressive and more effective,” Hohertz said of Goodwin. “Her shooting percentage yesterday was not where it needs to be and she really stepped up today and was physical.”
Also chipping in for the Lady Lions were Mady Pyle with six points, Lindsey Larose with five, Naysa Leach and Jaylen Savage with four apiece, and Kynslee Walker with one point.
Brownwood overcame 22 turnovers and shot 33 percent (14 of 43) from the floor, but only 12 percent (1 of 8) on three-pointers. At the free throw line, the Lady Lions knocked down 55 percent (16 of 29) of their tries, and Brownwood also collected 46 rebounds.
Trailing 16-14 after one quarter, and 20-14 with 5:53 left in the first half, the Lady Lions reeled off 10 consecutive points to grab a 24-20 advantage at the 3:47 mark of the second period. Goodwin accounted for seven points during the surge, while Leach added two free throws and Pyle sank one.
Brownwood led 26-23 at halftime and 30-24 with 3:55 left in the third period, but Graham answered with a pair of three-pointers by Gober to knot the score at 30 with 2:39 left in the quarter.
Goodwin sank one of two free throws just six seconds later to give Brownwood a 31-30 lead, which grew to 36-32 by the end of the quarter. Pyle knocked down the Lady Lions’ lone three-pointer with 1:48 left in the third, and Goodwin scored in the paint with 17 seconds left.
Brownwood notched the first four points of the fourth quarter – on buckets by Goodwin and Larose – to open its largest lead of eight points, 40-32, with 5:46 to go. Graham crept as close as four points, 42-38, with 1:32 left, but failed to score again while Goodwin tacked on three insurance points for the Lady Lions from the free throw line down the stretch.
“We didn’t have a down quarter like we did yesterday,” Hohertz said. “We came out and didn’t let their press affect us, we handled it and we attacked the basket like we needed to.”
The Lady Lions open District 6-4A action at 6 p.m. Tuesday at No. 9 Glen Rose (16-1).
“If we play every game like this game we’ll be all right,” Hohertz said. “We can’t have any down games, we have to play well every quarter, every possession because our district is going to be tough. We have to come out ready to go.”
