EARLY – The Brownwood Lady Lions held the Early Lady Horns scoreless for a 7:55 stretch of the first half, turning a three-point edge into a 16-point cushion during that span en route to a 46-24 victory Monday afternoon in non-district basketball action.
Brownwood (6-2) led 12-7 after one quarter, opened a 23-9 halftime edge, and carried a 39-18 lead into the fourth period.
“We really came out flat and didn’t shoot the ball very well, but that’s to be expected coming off a tournament,” said Lady Lions head coach Heather Hohertz. “We came alive in the second half, got some steals and got out in transition which has been very successful for us.”
The Lady Lions shot just 27 percent (14 of 51) from the floor, 29 percent (8 of 27) from the three-point arc and 55 percent (10 of 18) at the free throw line and committed 17 turnovers, but grabbed 34 rebounds and used 17 steals to help create 24 Lady Horn turnovers.
Icess Hall paced the Brownwood offense with 12 points followed by Miranda Northcutt with 9, Hannah Deen with 7, Kimber Green and Adyson Neel with 6 apiece, and Kate Tindol and Olivia Ringer with 3 points each.
Early (4-7) received 14 points from post Jamie Vassar, 7 from Lindsey Bastardo, 2 from Jenna Hataway, and 1 point from Cali Vargas.
“We played hard,” said Lady Horns head coach Eric Davis. “We’re trying to learn different rotations on defense and we’re getting better at that. We have to do a better job boxing out and hitting shots, but I was proud of our girls. That was a very athletic Brownwood team that for the most part we did a good job of keeping in check, just not enough shots went down.”
The Lady Horns are off until Tuesday, Nov. 28, when they face another Class 4A opponent in Sweetwater.
“It’s very important to play games like this because our district so tough,” Davis said of facing larger schools. “We have to play big schools to get ready for Brock and Peaster, and even Comanche and Eastland.”
The Lady Lions, with six wins in their first eight outings, will attempt to extend their stellar start when they return to the floor Tuesday, Nov. 28 at Jim Ned.
“I like our intensity, our energy and our effort,” Hohertz said of the Lady Lions’ early-season performance. “They’ve played hard every single game, even our two losses. Those times that we struggled against Hamilton and Goldthwaite we couldn’t find a way to make the shots when we needed to make a bucket. I think that will come, and you can’t teach effort, but they’re playing extremely hard and I really like the team chemistry we’ve shown so far. Now we’re going to take a nice little break and hopefully continue that.”
