The Brownwood Lady Lions turned four turnovers on the Early Lady Horns’ first four possessions of the game into nine points just 72 seconds into the contest, and head coach Heather Hohertz’s squad tallied the first 12 points of the game overall en route to a 58-34 victory in Tuesday night’s home opener at Warren Gym.

“I thought we came out very active defensively,” Hohertz said. “We got a lot of turnovers to start the game with our 1-2-2 press and that got us going from the start. I subbed midway through the first quarter and we dropped off a little bit, so I subbed back in to start the second quarter and we really pushed it out from there.”

The Lady Lions (4-1) took advantage of 24 Early (1-5) turnovers overall, thanks in part to creating 13 steals, while offensively Brownwood matched its season-high in points, which first occurred in the season opener.

“We haven’t been ourselves and played to our potential the last couple of games,” said Hohertz, as Brownwood was coming off its first loss of the season, 36-32 at Gorman, where it tallied a season-low in points. “It was good to play at home for once and they were motivated and active and the energy and effort really showed in the first quarter where we made our run.”

Leading the charge offensively was Trinity Roberts, who finished with a season-high 23 points and buried four three-pointers in the first half alone, as she recorded 18 points by halftime.

“Trinity struggled the last three games so it was really good to see what she’s capable of,” Hohertz said. “I expect this from here game in and game out and she stepped up to the challenge. We had a conversation in shoot around today and I thought she responded well. She did some moves I’ve been working on with her for two years now, and I was impressed with her defense as well. Their post players are pretty good, big and physical, and she held her ground, moved her feet and blocked some shots.”

Nylah Hall tacked on nine points for the Lady Lions – who led 16-9 after one quarter, 29-15 at halftime, and 39-24 through three frames – while Hannah Deen finished with eight points, Lanie Johnson and Icess Hall contributed five each, and Jade Morin and Kate Tindol both scored four points.

As a team, Brownwood shot 42 percent (24 of 57) from the floor, 27 percent (5 of 18) from three-point land and 45 percent (5 of 11) at the free throw line. The Lady Lions also pulled down 37 rebounds as a team, with 10 coming on the offensive end.

“Our rebounding was better,” Hohertz said. “We struggled with that against Gorman but I had two players with nine rebounds, Jade and Kate, and then Hannah with seven, and anytime we have that many players with that many rebounds we’re going to be successful.”

For Early, Jamie Vassar scored a team-high 17 points trailed by four each from Aliyah Harlan and Jordan Simmons, three apiece from Cali Vargas and Gabby Benson, two points from Avery Williams, and one point from Andie Simpson.

After trailing by a dozen points to start the game, Early crept within 16-12 just 39 seconds in the second period, but Brownwood closed the first half on a 13-3 run to regain control of the contest.

The Lady Lions will next compete in the Hamilton tournament Thursday through Saturday, beginning with a 9:50 a.m. Thursday game against host Hamilton, while the Lady Horns will take part in the Bangs tournament Thursday through Saturday.