The Brownwood Lady Lions secured third place in the TexasBank Holiday Classic Thursday afternoon with a 38-25 victory over the Class 2A No. 21 Goldthwaite Lady Eagles – the fourth victory in five tournament outings for head coach Heather Hohertz’s squad.
“I thought we turned the corner Wednesday night,” Hohertz said, referring to a 49-40 loss to Fort Worth Nolan Catholic. “If anybody watched us play, we finally played four quarters with effort and activeness defensively. Today I knew it was going to be a little rough coming off two hard games yesterday. It was all about how we could mentally and physically bounce back after being disappointed last night.”
The Lady Lions led 10-8 after one quarter, stretched the lead to 19-11 at halftime, and increased the advantage to 29-14 through three frames.
“It was a struggle for most of the game, but being the fifth game in three days you have to find a way to win,” Hohertz said. “It’s not always pretty, but we did find a way.”
Jaylen Savage posted a team-high 17 points for Brownwood (16-8) trailed by Tessa Goodwin with 11, Mady Pyle with eight, and Kynslee Walker with two points.
For Goldthwaite (16-7), Lainey Jernigan poured in 10 points followed by Hope Hermesmeyer with five, Abbey Patrick and Maggie Tupin with three each and Rani House and Britni Roberts with two apiece.
While Brownwood dealt with bouts on inconsistency on offense, the defense limited Godthwaite to a mere five points in the second and third quarters combined, which turned out to be the difference in the contest.
“In the first quarter we were standing and watching rebounds and weren’t moving until the ball was already caught,” Hohertz said. “I told them we have to find some energy, find something deep, find a way to get stops and win the day. They really took that as a challenge and stepped up on the court.”
Leading by eight points at halftime, the Lady Lions generated the first 10 points of the second half – six from Savage and four from Goodwin – to establish an 18-point cushion.
“We’ve been starting second halves with four or five negative plays in a row,” Hohertz said. “I talked with (assistant) Coach (Chesney) Neely and we decided we had to start calling a set to get us in the rhythm. We called about four or five sets there and Jaylen and Tessa executed and that really helped us get on a roll and get a bigger lead.”
Thursday’s contest also marked the season debut for Naysa Leach, who tore an ACL in summer league action and was originally expected to miss the entire 2021-22 campaign.
“She’s been with me for four years and she’s such a hard worker,” Hohertz said of Leach. “She’s worked hard to get back to this point. She recovered way faster than most people thought, a lot of people didn’t think she’d get to see the court at all this year. I attribute that to her hard work and staying focused. After an injury like that, it was exciting to see her get out on the court, get some minutes and get that confidence back.”
Brownwood has one pre-district game remaining at Graham at 6 p.m. Tuesday before kicking off District 6-4A action against Glen Rose on Jan. 7.
“District is right there in front of us if we want to go get it,” Hohertz said. “If we play like we did (against Nolan Catholic) with our effort and fix a few missed opportunities offensively, then we’ll give ourselves a chance.”
