Facing a must-win situation against a District 6-4A opponent they had already defeated earlier in the year, the Brownwood Lady Lions turned in perhaps their best performance of the 2021-22 campaign and secured a 72-24 triumph over the Gatesville Lady Hornets Friday night at Warren Gym.
The victory was the first in district action for the Lady Lions (18-10, 1-2), who are looking to return to the postseason after a one-year hiatus – the only season in which Brownwood did not reach the playoffs in head coach Heather Hohertz’s 13-year tenure.
The Lady Lions defeated Gatesville, 42-22, at the Lorena tournament on Dec. 3.
“We needed this in a big way,” Hohertz said. “We had a really hard practice on Wednesday and went back to the basics. We didn’t bounce back very well yesterday at practice, but we came out ready to go. We needed a big win and we got it.”
The Lady Lions shot 35 percent from the floor (23 of 66) and 45 percent (11 of 24) from three-point land, coming within one trey of matching the school record of 12 in a game, which has already occurred once this season – Nov. 18 in a 64-21 win over McGregor at the Hamilton tournament.
“I was just proud of our outside shooting,” said Hohertz, whose team established a new high-water mark for points in a game this season. “We work a lot with the guards on that and I was proud of them for stepping up and hitting them. We still didn’t finish around the basket like we need to, but our guards helped us out tonight.”
Mady Pyle led the charge with 24 points and six three-pointers, while Lilly Brasher scored a career-high 12 points off the bench with a pair of three-pointers, and Naysa Leach chipped in 10 points and three treys in a reserve role.
“They got their chance and they stepped up and they hit their shots,” Hohertz said. “Naysa was a starter for us until she tore her ACL this summer, so she has some offensive power. I was glad to see her and Lilly come in and hit some big shots.”
Also getting into the act offensively were Tessa Goodwin with nine points, Jaylen Savage with eight, Kynslee Walker and Brianna Castaneda with four apiece and Kimber Green with one point.
Along with a strong night from the floor, the Lady Lions also converted 71 percent (15 of 21) of their free throws.
“We’ve been working on a lot of free throws and that’s definitely a positive because at some point a game’s going to come down to that and we’re going to need it,” Hohertz said.
Brownwood also tallied 41 rebounds, with 23 coming on the offensive end; forced 26 turnovers, with 18 coming via steals; and limited Gatesville (4-14, 0-2) to 11 second-half points – with none coming in the fourth quarter.
“We ended the game with 23 offensive rebounds and that was something big that we talked about,” Hohertz said. “We got outrebounded at Lampasas by almost 20 and you can’t win games when you get outrebounded like that. We worked on that a lot yesterday and Wednesday. I challenged them at halftime, I wasn’t real pleased with our offensive rebounding in the first half, but they came out in the second half a big way.”
Regarding the defensive effort down the stretch, Hohertz said, “They got motivated because they wanted to try and beat that record of made threes in a game so they really turned it up defensively. I also told them if we gave up offensive rebounds we’d be running on Tuesday in practice.”
The Lady Lions are off until 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 21 when they visit No. 25 Stephenville (18-9, 1-1), a 71-41 winner over No. 13 Lampasas (23-7, 2-1) Friday night.
