Brownwood tallies first 24 points in 65-33 win over Brady, musters 7 points in second half of 49-38 loss to Colorado City
The No. 6 Brownwood Lady Lions’ two outings Thursday during the opening day of the TexasBank Holiday Classic were polar opposites.
The Lady Lions began the day with their sixth consecutive victory, scoring the first 24 points in a 65-33 victory over Brady. In the nightcap, Brownwood converted just two field goals and tallied seven points in the second half of a 49-38 loss to Colorado City.
In the triumph over Brady in their first game of the TexasBank Holiday Classic Thursday afternoon at Warren Gym, Brownwood scored the game’s initial 24 points as the outcome was determined prior to the conclusion of the first period.
“It wasn’t bad after a five-day layoff,” said Lady Lions head coach Heather Hohertz. “We were energized and active on defense. We held them to three points in the first quarter so we communicated and rotated pretty well. We didn’t shoot the ball well from the free throw line, but we made 10 three-pointers so that helped out.”
The Lady Lions carried a 24-3 edge into the second period, led 39-9 at the break and owned a 58-17 advantage heading to the fourth period.
Brownwood shot 33 percent from the field (22 of 66) and 31 percent (10 of 32) at the three-point line, while sinking only 57 percent (11 of 19) of its free throws. But the Lady Lions also pulled down 34 rebounds and committed just 10 turnovers, while recording 16 steals.
Mallory Garcia scored 20 points for Brownwood, one of three Lady Lions in double figures, followed by Sage Cupps with 16 and Ryleigh Dalleh with 13. Hadley Monroe added five points trailed by Daisy Green and Kenya Barnes with four apiece and Taytum Sutton with three.
For Brady, Journey Roddie and Millenia Rodriguez were the top point generators with eight apiece.
In the decisive first period, Barnes scored off an offensive rebound 39 seconds in, then Sutton drained a trey for a 5-0 edge. After a near two-minute scoring drought, Dalleh chipped in seven consecutive points to push the lead to 12-0 at the 3:38 mark. Garcia then buried a trey ahead of two buckets from Cupps for a 19-0 cushion. Garcia then sank a trey and two free throws before Roddie lit up the Brady side of the scoreboard with a three-pointer with just seven seconds left in the stanza.
“I told them in the locker room to come out and be focused, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing,” Hohertz said of the Lady Lions’ fast start. “We have to get our legs under us, get a first and second wind and continue to play the way we know how.”
In the loss to Colorado City, the Lady Lions rallied from a 15-12 deficit after one quarter and grabbed a 28-26 halftime advantage, but the wheels fell off in the second half. Brownwood was held to a season-low in points — 21 below its season average.
“I thought we were off the whole game,” Hohertz said. “That’s not taking anything away from Colorado City because they played really hard and took us out of what we wanted to do. But defensively we were very flat, we weren’t active, we stood around too much, we didn’t rebound. The only thing we did half way decent this game was shoot free throws.”
Cupps led Brownwood with 16 points, but 14 came in the first half. Garcia added 11 points, Dalleh finished with six, Barnes added three and Sutton contributed two.
Sutton and Garcia both fouled out in the fourth quarter and Barnes picked up her fourth foul just 39 seconds into the second half and played sparingly.
Dalleh hit a three-pointer that rolled around the rim with 3:56 left in the third period for Brownwood’s first points after intermission, which gave the Lady Lions a 31-29 edge. The other bucket from the Lady Lions came on a Garcia drive with 1:41 left — a 10:15 span between field goals.
“We just couldn’t finish,” Hohertz said. “We had a lot of shots at the rim but they wouldn’t fall. We didn’t have a lot of touch, it was the same way on defense, the ball didn’t bounce our way. Colorado City played their tails off and we just didn’t show up and perform very well.”
The lead changed hands 12 times from the point Brownwood took its first lead, 17-15, on a Cupps three-pointer 33 seconds into the second period, to the point where Colorado City took the lead for good, 33-31 on a pair of Conley Niblett free throws at 2:32 of the third quarter.
Niblett led all scorers with 19 points while Taylor Epperson chipped in 13 points for Colorado City.
The Lady Lions (19-3) will play twice Friday at the Brownwood Coliseum against Millsap at 11:10 a.m. and Abilene Cooper at 7:10 p.m.