The Brownwood Lady Lions tallied the game’s first 13 points and never looked back, notching a 50-21 victory over the Coleman Bluekatts Tuesday night at Warren Gym – their second of the day in TexasBank Holiday Classic action.
By the end of the first period, the Lady Lions (14-7) owned a 21-2 advantage over Coleman (5-11).
“Our starters came out with a purpose like we talked about before the game,” said Lady Lions 13th-year head coach Heather Hohertz. “I told them to make a run to start it and I thought Tessa (Goodwin) and Jaylen (Savage) were really big to start the game, whether it was moving the ball to each other or hitting a shooter on the outside.”
While the game was almost out of reach at the end of the opening stanza, Brownwood struggled with its consistency during the second and third periods, allowing Coleman to hang around with striking distance. But the Lady Lions were able to finish strong and foil any hopes for a Bluekatt comeback.
“For being the second game of the day after a six-day layoff I thought our effort wasn’t bad,” Hohertz said. “We track our plus/minus plays and we were plus 20 in the first quarter and we were negative 12 in the second quarter. We talked about how we can’t have that many negative plays to start a quarter, and in the third quarter we did the same thing. We turned it on toward the end of the third, but we can’t have six, seven, eight, nine negative plays in a row. We have to have some positives to break it up, and I think tomorrow they’ll fix that.”
Lexi Greer came off the bench and produced a team-high 12 points for Brownwood followed by Mady Pyle and Tessa Goodwin with 10 each, Jaylen Savage with nine, Kynslee Walker with four, Kimber Green with three and Lilly Brasher with two points.
“Lexi can score under the basket when she wants to,” Hohertz said. “It’s just whether Lexi is in that mode to score or not. She’s been a little off offensively all year long and hopefully this game will break her out of that shell. She’s got a good shot and she’s powerful going to the basket, but sometimes she just watches everybody else do it. I thought it was good for her to get that confidence going to the basket.”
For Coleman, Peyton Gober led the way with five points, Aislyn Cox added four, Vallyn Rosales and Brylei Gilbreath both finished with three, and Katy Elder, Ke’le Salinaz and Kamyn Hale chipped in two points each.
Leading by 19 points after one quarter, the Lady Lions were held scoreless the first 3:25 of the second period, yet still managed to own a 30-12 halftime advantage. Free throws by Goodwin at the 2:41 mark gave Brownwood its first 20-plus point advantage at 28-7.
Through three quarters, the Lady Lions extended their lead to 38-15 as a bucket from Greer gave Brownwood its biggest advantage to that point just prior to the end of the frame.
In the fourth quarter, the Lady Lions yielded one bucket over the final 5:17 while tallying six points for the final 29-point cushion.
Both of Brownwood’s Wednesday Classic games will take place at the Brownwood Coliseum – at 10:40 a.m. against Valley Mills and at 6:40 p.m. against Fort Worth Nolan Catholic.
