The Brownwood Lady Lions witnessed a 16-point second-half lead evaporate, regained the advantage late, still went to overtime, but managed to remain undefeated with a 67-58 home triumph over the Lake Belton Lady Broncos Tuesday night at Warren Gym.
“The whole game, even during pre-game, we were just flat,” said Lady Lions head coach Heather Hohertz. “We were so up and down in the first quarter, then we got on a run, then late in the third quarter and fourth quarter it felt like we relaxed. But we finally found a way to pull it out and play basketball in overtime.”
Leading 32-16 with 5:22 left in the third period, the Lady Lions (3-0) surrendered 12 straight points as Lake Belton (1-2) trimmed the deficit to 32-28 with 1:28 to go in the quarter.
Brownwood appeared to survive the surge and carried a 35-28 lead into the fourth period, and was in front 42-33 following a Jaylen Savage bucket with 5:32 left in regulation. But Lake Belton stormed back with 14 of the next 17 points and grabbed a 47-46 lead with 2:27 remaining.
“Not as much intensity on defense, not getting defensive rebounds, and not executing offensively,” Hohertz said of the reasons for the Lake Belton rally. “We were trying to run our man offense and we were going different directions and not reading what the defense is doing. We just took ourselves out of it. Credit to Lake Belton because they played hard, but we have to run our offense better than that.”
The Lady Lions regained a 48-47 lead when Tessa Goodwin scored following an inbounds play under the bucket with 1:06 left. Brownwood added free throws from Alexa Arreola down the stretch and maintained a 53-50 edge, but Lake Belton knocked down a three-pointer from the left wing as time expired to extend the contest.
In overtime, Mady Pyle drained her fourth three-pointer of the game to start the scoring, and Goodwin recorded a steal and drove the length of the court for a bucket that gave Brownwood a 58-53 lead at the 2:24 mark of the extra session. Lake Belton crept within 58-56, but Goodwin and Kynslee Walker sank free throws on Brownwood’s next two trips down to court to build a 62-56 cushion with 1:04 left, and the Lady Lions were able to finish off the victory.
“I told them whatever happened before this doesn’t matter. Right now we have four minutes to go and play and we finally played some basketball in that overtime period,” Hohertz said. “A win’s a win right now and they found a way to not play very good and still find a way to win.”
As for overcoming a shaky performance and still landing in the win column, Hohertz said, “That’s something we talked about in the locker room. We have a lot of talent, a good team, but you can’t just rely on showing up and winning. That went through their heads in the first two quarters, then we took a big lead in the third and when (Lake Belton) came back we kind of hung our heads a little bit when they tied it up at the fourth quarter.”
Goodwin led the Lady Lions with 22 points while three guards joined in her double figures – Walker with 15, Pyle with 14 and Arreola with 10 points. Savage added four and Kassidy Wooten chipped in two points.
“They had wide open looks and hit shots when they needed to hit shots,” Hohertz said of the guard play. “They handled the ball almost to my liking, not quite there yet, but I thought they played well. Defensively, we were just off. We didn’t have the spark and energy that we had last week.”
The Lady Lions kick off tournament action in Hamilton on Thursday as they tangle with McGregor at 9:50 a.m. Brownwood is also slated to face Comanche at 12:30 p.m. Friday and Hamilton at 5:50 p.m. Friday, with the tournament concluding Saturday.
