SWEETWATER – Falling behind by double figures with less than 30 seconds left in the first half of Tuesday night’s Region I-4A girls basketball bi-district playoff contest, the Brownwood Lady Lions rallied to draw even with the Lubbock Estacado Lady Matadors with 3:52 left in the third quarter. Soon after, Brownwood went through a 7:24 dry spell without a field goal which sparked a 17-1 Estacado run as the Lady Matadors pulled away for a 56-38 first-round victory.

“We played our tails off,” said Lady Lions 14th-year head coach Heather Hohertz. “We played our game plan to perfection for almost three full quarters and for whatever reason that last 10 minutes we stopped blocking out like we needed to and started giving them layups. But we gave ourselves a chance and that’s all you can ask for when only one player on this team ever had any playoff experience.”

The Lady Lions finished the game shooting 33 percent (11 of 33) from the field, including 30 percent (4 of 13) on three-pointers, and 60 percent (12 of 20) at the free throw line. Brownwood coughed up the ball 25 times and recorded 18 rebounds and 13 steals, while dishing out two assists.

(courtesy of Derrick Stuckly of Brownwoodnews.com)