STEPHENVILLE – The roller coaster ride that has been the Brownwood Lady Lions’ offense in the 2023-24 basketball season featured one of its most efficient efforts of the season on Tuesday night – a 50 percent success rate from the floor – only to be followed by the struggles that have been all too familiar on the road.
With a chance to secure the No. 2 seed from District 6-4A for the playoffs, the Lady Lions converted just 15 percent (6 of 40) of their field goals and 50 percent (10 of 20) of their free throws in a 38-24 road loss to the Stephenville Honeybees Friday night.
“I thought our kids played with really good effort, but we couldn’t buy a shot no matter if it was from the block, a three-pointer, or free throw line, we struggled,” said Lady Lions 15th year head coach Heather Hohertz said. “Our kids’ effort was good, we played hard enough to give ourselves a chance to win, but you’ve got to make shots.”
Brownwood (20-12, 4-4) allowed just one more point than in its 43-37 home victory over Stephenville (20-10, 5-2) on Jan. 16, but scored 19 fewer points as the Lady Lions converted only three field goals in each half.
The Lady Lions also experienced two 12-plus minute droughts between field goals – one of 12:04 in the first half and another of 12:36 in the second – as Brownwood trailed 16-5 after one quarter, 22-12 at halftime, and 31-16 heading to the fourth quarter.
“We were a little nervous to start the game, we didn’t relax and play, and I think that carried over into our shooting,” Hohertz said.
On top of the rough shooting performance, Lady Lions point guard Icess Hall left the game just 61 seconds into the second half with a knee injury and did not return. The severity of her injury and her status for the postseason was unknown Friday night.
Hannah Deen finished with 10 points for the Lady Lions trailed by Kimber Green with nine, Miranda Northcutt and Kate Tindol with two apiece, and Hall with one point.
Stephenville received 12 points from Chayni Chamberlain, nine from Audrey Brandon, seven from Caitlyn Sikes, six from Brinley Hall, five from Chandler Glasgow, and one point from Kyla Ray.
With the loss, the Lady Lions will head into the playoffs for the 14th time in 15 years as the No. 3 seed from District 6-4A. Brownwood will likely face District 5-4A second-place squad Lubbock Estacado (19-12, 7-2) in a rematch of last year’s bi-district playoff game.
“We’ll heal our bodies, get back in the gym and shoot, shoot and shoot some more,” Hohertz of the Lady Lions’ plan between now and the playoffs. “We’ll start putting the game plan on, we have a week before we play them, and we’ll decide what we want to do and how we try and tackle it.”
