Trailing by 15 points at the start of the fourth period, the Brownwood Lions shaved the advantage of the San Angelo Lake View Chiefs to a bucket with 3:38 left in the contest, but were outscored 12-1 the rest of the way in a 68-55 defeat Tuesday night at Warren Gym.

“We have to figure out how to play 32 minutes,” said Lions head coach Will Parker, whose team dropped its second straight outing. “We fought back hard and got a timeout to get us regrouped, but I felt like it ended up helping them more than it helped us.”

Ross Strasner poured in 21 points to pace Brownwood (8-5), trailed by Casey Friebel with 17, Durham Brown with 11, Elias Perez with four, and Bennett Windham with two points.

For Lake View (5-8), scorers included Braylon White with 21 points, Joseph Delgado with 19, Roman Garcia with eight, Jaiden Salas with six, Trace Woods and Chris Alvizo with five apiece, and Marcus Finch with four points.

Trailing 14-10 after one quarter, 30-25 at halftime, and 53-38 going to the fourth period, the Lions struck for the first seven points of the final stanza to trim the deficit to 53-45 with 6:50 remaining.

Down 56-47 at the 5:19 juncture, a string of seven straight points followed – three from Friebel and two apiece from Strasner and Brown – to reduce the deficit to 56-54 with 3:38 left in the contest.

“Our energy was way better,” Parker said of the Lions’ fourth-quarter turnaround. “I told them before the game the most energetic, most aggressive team was going to win this game and we let them dictate the pace. We just can’t do that. Our press didn’t look good and we have some things to fix on that, too.”

With a chance to tie or take the lead, the Lions lost possession of the ball while driving in the paint, one of 18 turnovers, which fueled a run of six straight points as Lake View weathered the storm and pushed its lead back to 62-54 with 1:09 left on the clock.

The Lions will next compete in the Brady tournament over the weekend with games against the Abilene JV at 6 p.m. Thursday, San Saba at 9 a.m. Friday, Ballinger at 3 p.m. Friday, and Blanco at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.

“We get a chance to play four games in three days so a lot of guys are going to get some minutes,” Parker said. “Honestly I want to see us shoot the ball better. We have to find a way to get some offense going to create easier shots. The team that shoots the best is going to win games and right now we’re not shooting very well. We have to figure out a way to get some offense going and some flow out there.”