The Brownwood Lady Lions finished up a stretch of six games in six days with their fifth victory in that span, a 48-18 triumph over the Class 3A Rogers Lady Eagles Tuesday afternoon at Warren Gym.
“We came out in the first two quarters and had a little better energy than we did yesterday,” said Lady Lions 13th-year head coach Heather Hohertz, referring to Monday’s 35-31 win over Mildred. “We talked about finishing before the break the right way. We’d had a lot of games the last few days and you can tell we don’t have our legs underneath us.”
The Lady Lions continued their early season trend of quick starts, jumping out to an 18-6 advantage after one quarter. Brownwood’s defense then stole the show from there, yielding just two points in the second and third periods combined as the lead ballooned to 40-8 heading into the fourth quarter.
Brownwood also forced 26 Rogers (2-2) turnovers and did not allow the Lady Eagles to reach double figures in points until 4:12 remained in the contest.
“We had to fix it from yesterday,” Hohertz said in regard to the defense. “We weren’t rotating well, we were standing around. We were a lot more active, we were bumping, we were talking, we were communicating a lot better than we did yesterday. I know they were fatigued, but that was good to see. I challenged them to make sure our rotation was good, to continue to move our feet, and continue to talk even when they’re tired.”
Offensively, Jaylen Savage led the charge for Brownwood with 13 points trailed by 12 from Alexa Arreola, eight from Tessa Goodwin, seven from Kynslee Walker, three apiece from Lilly Brasher and Mady Pyle and two points from Kassidy Wooten.
The Lady Lions shot 33 percent (18 of 55) from the floor, 23 percent (4 of 17) from three-point land and 50 percent (8 of 16) at the free throw line, but pulled down 22 rebounds with 13 coming on the offensive end.
“We still didn’t shoot the ball that well and I think that’s because of our legs and having so many games in so few days,” Hohertz said. “We’re going to have days like that throughout the season but you have to find ways to win, kind of like we did yesterday. Today it was a team effort, we spread the ball around and everybody contributed.”
After a brief break this weekend, the Lady Lions are back in action at Jim Ned Tuesday, then take part in the Lorena tournament Thursday, Dec. 2 through Saturday, Dec. 4 as the level of competition amps up.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” Hohertz said. “It feels nice to be 8-1, especially after last year’s struggles, but the girls know they have a lot of room for improvement and we have to get there. Glen Rose exposed that to us last Saturday in the championship game at Hamilton. If we want to get where we want to get, we have to continue to get better.”
