The Brownwood Lions scored the first 24 points of Saturday’s home basketball game against Lampasas, but the Badgers stormed back and snatched a 73-67 non-district victory at Warren Gym.
The Lions (2-2) led 27-10 after one quarter and 38-28 at halftime, but Lampasas scored the first 11 points of the second half and carried a 52-48 edge into the third quarter.
Trailing 50-45 with 43 seconds in the third period, the Lions scored nine of the next 13 points to regain a 54-53 lead with 6:45 to go.
Brownwood pushed the lead to 60-55 with 5:02 left on a bucket by Casey Friebel – who scored a season-high 35 points – but Lampasas answered with 11 of the next 12 points to jump back in front, 66-61, with 2:16 remaining.
With 1:15 left, the Lions closed the gap to 66-64 on a three-pointer by Friebel – who scored 13 points in both the first and fourth quarters – but Brownwood got no closer.
“I like playing Lampasas because it’s going to be up and down, we’re going to get lots of possessions and we’re going to figure out what we need to work on faster than if we play somebody else,” said Lions head coach Will Parker. “But we have to hit free throws and we can’t turn the ball over and have dumb turnovers where we just throw it away. The best shooting team is going to win games and we have to be the better shooting team.”
Along with Friebel’s effort, Ross Strasner scored 12 points for Brownwood followed by seven from Noah Pyle and six from Elias Perez, as both Pyle and Perez scored all their points in the first half. Durham Brown tacked on three points and Bennett Windham added one, as the Lions converted just 8 of 18 free throws.
Lampasas was sparked by 6-7 post 33 who finished with 21 points while 3 chipped in 19 points.
The Lions are back in action at 12:30 p.m. Monday as they host Llano, then welcome Jim Ned in the back half of a doubleheader with the Lady Lions that begins at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at Warren Gym.
“I hope we come back with the kind of start we had today, that was awesome to watch, a lot of energy,” Parker said. “But we let the little negative things build and build, so we have to be able to play through that because basketball is a game of runs.”