The Brownwood Lady Lions remained within striking distance through one half, but the No. 9 Stephenville Honeybees pulled away over the final two quarters for a 51-32 District 6-4A victory Friday night at Warren Gym, completing the season sweep.
With the loss, the Lady Lions (16-18, 3-4) are locked in as the No. 3 playoff seed from District 6-4A, regardless the outcome of Saturday’s 1 p.m. make-up game at Graham (2-21, 0-6). Stephenville (29-3, 6-1), meanwhile, is still in contention for the district title as it faces No. 1 Glen Rose (32-1, 7-0) Tuesday.
“Our game plan was to slow it down and take as much time off the clock as possible. We executed that very well for two quarters, then they turned up the pressure a little bit defensively in the third quarter and got us away from the game plan and that’s where they broke it open,” said Lady Lions 14th-year head coach Heather Hohertz. “You can’t win against a good ball team giving up 25 turnovers, but we executed pretty well for two and a half quarters. We gave ourselves a shot and that’s all you can ask for.”
Down 11-2 after one quarter, the Lady Lions closed the gap to four points at one point in the second period and trailed 20-14 at halftime. Through three periods, however, Stephenville was able to stretch the advantage out to 36-18.
Kimber Green sparked the Lady Lions with 11 points followed by five each from Mady Pyle and Hannah Deen, three from Sidney Windham, and two points apiece from Olivia Ringer, Kassidy Wooten, Miranda Northcutt and Icess Hall.
Brownwood attempted just 17 field goals and converted seven (41 percent), including 4 of 11 three-pointers (36 percent), and knocked down 14 of 21 free throws (66 percent). Along with the 25 turnovers, the Lady Lions mustered just 16 rebounds, created only five steals, and dished out just a pair of assists.
Stephenville received 18 points from Mya Wilson and 15 from Lillie Skiles.
Friday’s game marked the last at home for Brownwood’s two seniors, Pyle and Wooten.
“Mady has been on varsity for three years and has been a gym rat and gotten better each and every year,” Hohertz said. “Kassidy has had some injuries but she’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever got to coach. Those two have led a young group this year and they’ve done all I could ask for. Our goal was the make the playoffs, we’ve done that, and they’re leading the freshmen and sophomores and showing them what a winning program should be.”
