Experience was definitely on the side of the Brownwood Lions Tuesday night, whose home opener marked their third contest of the season, while the Early Longhorns were making their 2024-25 debut on the court.
When the dust had settled at Warren Gym, the Lions had collected a 62-32 victory, sparked by a 13-0 run to end the third period.
“It looked like we played some pretty good team basketball for about 26 of the 32 minutes,” said Lions head coach Will Parker. “I’m just really proud of the effort. These guys have been playing together for a long time and it’s really awesome as a coach to watch them come out for their first home game and play together, keep their composure and do the things that they did.”
The Lions (2-1) took a 9-8 lead at the end of the first period on a three-pointer by Bennett Windham before the buzzer, then stretched their advantage to 29-16 at halftime. With Early (0-1) still hanging around, trailing 38-21 at the 3:31 mark of the third period after a bucket by Camden Myers, the Lions scored the final 13 points of the quarter to carry a 51-21 advantage into the fourth period and put the game out of reach.
“We hit the nail on the head when we talked about that in the locker room at halftime,” Parker said. “We worked on our spacing, let them be aggressive and then took advantage of them. To me, you combine that with offensive rebounding and not turning the ball over and those are the kind of results you get.”
Casey Friebel paced the Lions’ effort with a game-high 28 points while Elias Perez chipped in 18.
“These are the moments Casey loves,” Parker said. “He loves the crowd, he loves the lights, he loves the Friday nights and Tuesday nights. To me, when he keeps his composure and plays team basketball, he’s something special and was fun to watch.”
Parker added, “Elias has had some big minutes for us already this season and his confidence is growing. It’s awesome to see the older guys understand him and have confidence in him and keep giving him the ball.”
Ross Strasner also finished in double figures for Brownwood with 11 points while Windham chipped in his trey and Noah Pyle added a bucket.
For Early, Cooper Shults tallied a team-high 10 points followed by Zack Rumfield with seven, Darryl Watkins, Rhett Williams and Camden Myers with four each, Andrew Reedy with two and Sam St Ama with one point.
The Longhorns did force 21 Brownwood turnovers while committing 15, but Early was 1 of 6 at the free throw line while the Lions converted 13 of 19 tries.
“We can’t turn the ball over early in the game with silly turnovers where we’re not looking when we pass the ball,” Parker said in regard to what he wants to improve from Tuesday’s performance. “We did that again at the end of the game, and we can’t have those letdowns. That’s what I want to clean up, but those things happen from time to time when you play up and down the court like we play.”
The Lions will next host Llano at 12:30 p.m. Saturday while the Longhorns welcome Bangs at 6:15 p.m. Friday.
