The Brownwood Lions jumped out to a 16-point first-quarter lead, which vanished early in the second half, but first-year head coach Will Parker’s squad was able to regroup and keep the Lampasas Badgers at bay for a 92-87 victory Friday night at Warren Gym.
With the win, Brownwood’s 20th of the season, the Lions (20-7, 4-0) claim sole possession of first place in the District 6-4A standings – a game ahead of Lampasas (20-11, 3-1) – at the midway point of the league campaign.
“That was a team win right there,” Parker said. “We didn’t panic. I told them to handle the runs, that this would be a game of runs. We knew this was going to be a high scoring ball game, and we did what we do.”
Jakob Hataway led the Lions with 28 points trailed by Bryson Monroe with 18, Luke Moss with 17, Christian Kinzler with 13, Tristan Salinas with six, Weston Burns with five, Ike Hall with three and Hayden Noe with two points.
For Lampasas, Nate Borchardt poured in 22 points, Kaeden Crawford contributed 20 and Luke Shivers chipped in 13.
“He’s got a great group over there, he’s running a great program over there, and he’s going to get everything he can get from them every single night,” Parker said of Lampasas. “Hats off to Coach (Aaron) Nuckles and those guys. They do a great job all the time, that wasn’t just tonight.”
The Lions raced out to a 26-10 lead with 2:17 left in the first period before Lampasas trimmed the deficit to 30-21 after one quarter. But halftime, the Badgers had crept within 49-45, then tallied the first four points of the second half.
With Brownwood clinging to a 58-56 lead at the 5:32 mark of the third period after a dunk by Crawford, the Lions responded with 10 of the next 11 points to regain a double-digit lead, 68-57, at the 4:19 juncture. Hataway drained a pair of three-pointers during the surge as part of an 11-point quarter to help Brownwood re-establish breathing room.
By the end of the third period, Lampasas had closed the gap to 74-69, but the Lions again gradually stretched the lead back to double figures, with Kinzler scoring following on offensive rebound with 3:38 left to push the lead to 87-77.
Once more, Lampasas made another push and trimmed the deficit to 90-87 with 29 seconds left after a bucket and a steal at half court resulted in a layup in a 12-second span.
Kinzler was fouled with 18 seconds left and missed both free throws, but Monroe hauled down the offensive rebound, and the Lions got the ball back to Hataway who was fouled with five seconds left. Hataway sank the final two free throws, as Brownwood drained 25 of 32 from the charity stripe, for the final five-point margin.
The Lions open the second half of district play at Gatesville at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Brownwood defeated Gatesville in the league opener, 91-66.
