Lions allow pair of double-digit runs in 71-42 home loss to Gatesville

January 2, 2026 at 6:34 pm Derrick Stuckly

Riggs Gray (30) scored all six of his points in the fourth quarter for Brownwood (10-10), which is next in action Friday, Jan. 9 at Waco High in the pre-district finale {Additional photos included with story}

The Brownwood Lions surrendered a pair of double-digit runs in the first and third quarters and were unable to recover in a 71-42 home non-district loss to Gatesville Friday afternoon at Warren Gym.

Leading 8-6 with 4:19 left in the first period, after Elias Perez had scored all the points for the Lions (10-10) to that juncture, Brownwood went 5:39 without a point as Gatesville (15-6) established a 19-8 advantage thanks to a string of 13 unanswered points.

The Lions trailed 35-20 at halftime, and did not score for the first 4:21 of the third quarter as Gatesville reeled off 14 more points to extend its cushion to 49-20.

Leading 55-26 after three quarters, Gatesville’s largest advantage of 33 points, 67-34, came with 4:24 left in the contest.

“Gatesville is a really well-coached team and they play really hard on offense and defense, they’re real structured and fundamentally sound,” said Lions first-year coach Jorden Young. “They were able to expose us in areas where we need to grow and get better. We had 23 turnovers, and that’s an area where we have to improve. In the second quarter we played well because we were taking care of the ball and closed the gap a little bit. But in the third quarter we started turning it over again and the game gets blown open.”

Perez paced the Lions with 10 points followed by eight from Jordan Gilbert, seven from Cannon Calvert, six each from Riggs Gray and Durham Brown, three points from Bennett Windham and two from Judson Coalson.

Gatesville received 20 points from Grady Keeton and 17 points from Charlie Winkler, while Amos Phillips tacked on nine points and Kayden Mayes contributed seven.

The Lions are off until next Friday, Jan. 9 at 7 p.m. when they visit Waco High in their pre-district finale.

Regarding areas Young wants to see improvement in ahead of the Jan. 16 district opener against Stephenville, turnovers were at the top of the list.

“We have to be better at taking care of the ball,” he said. “It’s not just our guards, it’s not just our posts, it’s everybody. I have to do a better job of getting us more structured and put them in places where they can be successful and not turn the ball over. We all have to figure out how we can take care of the ball and get more shot attempts.”