The Brownwood Lady Lions avenged an earlier league setback, secured their 20th victory of the season and – most importantly – locked up a postseason berth and set up a showdown with Stephenville for the No. 2 playoff seed from District 6-4A thanks to Tuesday’s 55-33 ‘Senior Night’ victory at Warren Gym.
Clinging to a 28-27 lead with 3:11 left in the third period, the Lady Lions (20-11, 4-3) outscored Graham (8-14, 1-5) by a 27-6 count the rest of the way, including a crushing 17-2 run that ended the third period and began the fourth.
“We didn’t get ourselves in a hole like when we went to Graham,” Lady Lions head coach Heather Hohertz said in reference to an early 15-3 deficit in a 39-30 loss at Graham on Jan. 12. “My kids showed up in the second half and I’m just proud of them for finishing things out at Warren Gym and giving ourselves a chance to go over the Stephenville and clinch the second seed. It was a good way to send the seniors out.”
After hitting just 17 percent of their shots in the first meeting, the Lady Lions converted a season-best 50 percent (20 of 40) of their field goal attempts in the rematch, including 33 percent (5 of 15) from the three-point line, and 76 percent (10 of 13) at the free throw stripe. Brownwood also committed just 14 turnovers, recorded 11 steals and pulled down 19 rebounds.
Hannah Deen again led the charge with 22 points and eclipsed 500 career rebounds in just her 67th varsity game as a sophomore, while fellow sophomore Icess Hall chipped in 12 points and senior Kimber Green returned to double figures with an 11-point effort. Freshman Trinity Roberts tacked on six points and junior Kate Tindol and senior Olivia Ringer finished with two apiece.
For Graham, Emilee Gordy tallied 12 points, Maddie Franklin added nine and Rebecca McGregor contributed seven.
The Lady Lions’ decisive surge began with a three-pointer from Green, which pushed the Brownwood lead to 31-27 with 1:26 to go in the third period.
“She’s been in a major slump and it was good to see the ball go through the hoop for her tonight,” Hohertz said of Green.
After a Graham bucket, Hall drained another trey for Brownwood to stretch the lead to 34-29 with 53 seconds to go, then Ringer scored wide open under the basket to increase the cushion to 36-29 with 19 seconds left in the quarter.
“Ringer stepped up and played some minutes at a position she hasn’t had to play with Miranda (Northcutt) out with the flu,” Hohertz said. “She got us some rebounds and hit a big shot to keep our run going.”
With two seconds left in the third period, the Graham bench was called for a technical foul and Green stepped up and buried two free throws. Then, on the inbounds play, Deen’s half-court heave banked in before the buzzer for the third three-pointer in less 90 seconds, and a 41-29 Lady Lions’ cushion heading to the fourth period.
Deen tacked on two more buckets to start the fourth quarter, staking the Lady Lions to a 45-29 advantage with 5:59 remaining.
“We made some shots when we needed to and we feed off that,” Hohertz said. “Hannah was 8 of 10 from the field and 2 of 4 from three-point line, and Icess got the ball where we needed it to go. She started off slow but she bounced back, and those two stepped up when we really needed them.”
The Lady Lions and Graham were tied at 10-10 after one quarter and Brownwood used a 9-1 run at the end of the second period to seize a 23-20 halftime lead. Down 19-14, a bucket from Hall and a trey from Green evened the score. Then, trailing 20-19 with 62 seconds to go, Deen put Brownwood in front, 21-20, and scored again with 22 seconds left before intermission.
Graham scored the first five points of the third period to regain a 25-23 lead, but Hall converted a traditional three-point play to give the Lady Lions a 26-25 edge at the 4:23 mark as Brownwood never trailed again.
The Lady Lions will visit Stephenville (19-10, 4-2) – which it defeated 43-37 at Warren Gym on Jan. 16 at 5:45 p.m. Friday – where a victory would secure Brownwood the No. 2 playoff seed from 6-4A for the playoffs. The Honeybees were off Tuesday night.
“I’ve never won in Stephenville but I’m going to challenge the kids with that and this second half is something to build on,” Hohertz said. “I’m ready to get back to work and putting the game plan on for Friday.”