The Brownwood Lady Lions struggled on both ends of the court as their three-game win streak reached its conclusion, 46-35, at the hands of Fort Worth Lake Country Christian Wednesday morning at Warren Gym in their TexasBank Holiday Classic opener.
The Lady Lions sank just four three-pointers after averaging nine during their three-game win streak, and converted just 9 of 22 free throws, committed 23 turnovers and were outrebounded the majority of the game on the defensive end, which led to multiple second and third-chance scoring opporutnities for Lake Country.
Tied at 6 after one quarter, the Lady Lions (10-12) built a 14-9 advantage at the 5:13 mark of the second period only to be outscored by a 12-2 count by Lake Christian (14-4) to end the half, putting Brownwood in a 21-16 hole.
The Lady Lions crept within a bucket, 24-22, at 3:59 of the third period on deuce by Hannah Deen, but after a Lake Country timeout Brownwood gave up six straight points and faced a 30-22 deficit.
An Icess Hall trey in the closing seconds of the third period brought the Lady Lions within 30-25, but Lake Country responded with the first seven points of the final period to open its largest lead to that point, 37-25, with 4:54 remaining.
Trailing by as many as 14 points, the Lady Lions shaved the deficit to eight, 43-35, on a pair of Sidney Windham free throws with 1:43 left, but got no closer.
Mady Pyle led Brownwood with 13 points trailed by Deen with nine, Windham with five, Hall and Kassidy Wooten with three each and Kimber Green with two points.
Lake Country received 18 poins from Courtney Middlebrook and 10 from Avery Sweeney.
The Lady Lions are back in action at 5:20 p.m. Wednesday at Warren Gym against Valley Mills.
