MINERAL WELLS – The Brownwood Lady Lions extended their win streak to nine games, and picked up their 11th victory in the last 12 outings, with a 45-23 road triumph over the Mineral Wells Lady Rams Friday night to kick off District 6-4A competition.
“We’ve talked about how we like where we are, we’re confident, and this was a business trip,” said Lady Lions head coach Heather Hohertz. “We showed up to play and really followed that and it showed in our play on the court tonight. It’s always nice to open district with a win and to go on the road and continue to stay focused was big for us.”
Clinging to an 8-7 lead with 2:30 left in the first quarter, the Lady Lions (19-6, 1-0) went on a 13-0 run, holding Mineral Wells (15-8, 0-1) scoreless for a 7:58 stretch – almost a full quarter – to open a 21-7 advantage with a 2:32 left before intermission.
The spurt began with two free throws from Hannah Deen – as Brownwood connected on 9 of 10 from the charity stripe – a three-pointer banked in by Lanie Johnson, and Deen scored again following an offensive rebound as Brownwood led 15-7 after one quarter.
Deen added two more buckets and Nylah Hall also scored to push the advantage to 14 points for Brownwood midway through the second frame.
Offensively, Deen and Jade Morin led the charge with 14 points each, as Deen also grabbed 13 rebounds for a double-double and Morin came up just shy with nine boards.
“What I like about this team is it doesn’t matter who it is, but night in and night out someone is going to step up,” Hohertz said. “In some recent games it’s been Icess (Hall) and tonight it was Hannah and Jade. Hannah had a double-double and Jade was one rebound shy, but that’s what I like about this team is they compete and play team basketball.”
Also scoring for Brownwood were Johnson and Trinity Roberts with five points apiece, Icess Hall with three, and Miranda Northcutt and Nylah Hall with two points each.
Defensively, the Lady Lions – who led 26-11 at halftime and 34-18 after three quarters – forced 16 turnovers and did not yield double figures in points in any quarter.
“We let them get a few going to the basket because we weren’t in help side or we were standing in single fist, which are things I see as a coach, but you look at the score and we took care of business,” Hohertz said. “Those are things we’re going to have to take care of against other teams and we will, but it was still a good defensive effort tonight.”
Mineral Wells received 10 points from Aniya Richardson, five from Kahlea Samples, four from Jaylee Newman, and two points each from Emery Boswell and Addyson Moore.
Next for Brownwood is a 5:45 p.m. Tuesday district home date against TABC Class 4A No. 3 Glen Rose (13-1).
“Our district is extremely tough,” Hohertz said. “Glen Rose graduated two post players from last year but brings back their two guards, and one is going to Tarleton and the other is going to Grayson College. We’re going to have to play really well but I think our girls will be up for the challenge and that’s why you play the game.”
