Having dropped two of their final three games before Christmas, the Brownwood Lions returned to their winning ways Tuesday night at the Brownwood Coliseum as they outlasted the Class 5A Abilene Wylie Bulldogs, 85-78, in their first game at the TexasBank Holiday Classic.
“We shot the ball really well and we stay disciplined when we needed to,” Lions first-year head coach Will Parker said of his team’s performance. “(Wylie) had to switch it up and go man on us, they got out of what they do, and we did a good job trying to take of advantage of it. I think maybe that was the difference. That’s a good team over there and we showed we can play with some good schools.”
Bryson Monroe poured in a team-high 23 points for the Lions (13-5) trailed by Luke Moss with 16 points, Jakob Hataway with 15, Tristan Salinas with 10, Christian Kinzler with eight, Ike Hall and Thad Hinds with five apiece, Weston Burns with three and Seth Oines with two points.
Wylie (8-11) post Avery Brekke led all scorers with 37 points followed by Martin Marshall with 15, Hunter Hood with 13, Kazion Brown with 12, Mark Fakhoury with nine, and Isaiah Carrillo with two points.
Knotted at 40 at halftime, the Lions tallied the first seven points of the third period on a bucket by Kinzler, a steal and a layup from Monroe, and a trey by Monroe which led to a Wylie timeout just 1:18 into the second half as Brownwood built a 47-40 lead – its largest to that point.
“We scored the first seven and they called a timeout, and that was huge,” Parker said. “We talk about the importance of timing – the beginning of the game, of course, and going into halftime, which we didn’t do a good job of. But coming out of halftime and the end of the third quarter, to me those times for us set the tone for the whole game. We have to really make sure we continue to do a good job of that.”
The Lions maintained the lead until Wylie drew even at 62 with 59 seconds left in the third on a bucket by Fakhoury. Brownwood, however, had another surge in store as the Lions finished the third quarter and started the fourth with 10 consecutive points, opening a 72-62 advantage with 6:25 to go.
Brownwood’s string of points began with a bucket from Oines and Salinas scored on a late putback as the Lions carried a 66-62 edge into the final period. There, free throws from Moss and buckets by Salinas and Kinzler gave the Lions their first double-digit cushion.
“It was a bunch of guys stepping up, it wasn’t one guy,” Parker said. “We had a couple guys off the bench hit some big shots and that makes it hard for a coach to decide who to put in and keep in cause they all played their tails off. I thought they all handled it real well.”
Wylie gradually crept back, dwindling the deficit to 80-76 with just over a minute left, but a steal and layup by Hataway with 51 seconds left lengthened the gap to 82-76 and essentially iced the victory.
The Lions continue tournament action at 10:40 a.m. Wednesday at Warren Gym against Big Spring, which dropped its pool game to Wylie, 50-34, Tuesday. Seeding games will follow later in the day.
