The Mineral Wells Rams ended a five-game skid and extended the Brownwood Lions’ drought to eight games in a 62-51 District 6-4A boys basketball decision Tuesday night at Warren Gym.
Leading by nine points after one quarter, the Lions (13-14, 0-4) fell behind by a point at halftime and Mineral Wells (5-21, 1-3) extended the advantage to nine points heading to the fourth quarter.
“They came in here ready to play and we didn’t and that’s my fault,” said Lions head coach Will Parker. “We have to do a lot better job of being ready to play mentally in games like this and I feel like I have to do a lot more to get our guys ready.”
The Lions were in front 18-9 after one quarter, but Mineral Wells managed to seize the advantage, 26-25, at the break.
“Our spacing has to get a lot better,” Parker said. “We had guys in the way when we were driving on them. We had good match-ups out there with different guys, but our decision making gets tough when things are all clustered up in the middle. When we had good spacing and good rotation I thought we looked alright offensively, but guys still have to be able to make shots.”
In the second half, with Brownwood clinging to a 29-28 edge, a technical foul – one of two called in just over two minutes against the Lions – helped ignite a string of 13 straight Mineral Wells points as the Rams grabbed a 41-29 advantage with 4:13 left in the third period.
Down 43-34 at the start of the fourth quarter, the Lions crept within four points, 43-39, following free throws from Elias Perez with 6:26 to go, but Brownwood go no closer as the Rams answered with an 8-2 spurt to push the lead back to double figures, 51-41, with 4:32 remaining.
The Lions were also plagued by an 8 of 27 effort at the free throw line including a 5 of 17 performance in the fourth quarter alone. Mineral Wells, meanwhile, sank 15 of 20 free throws and 7 of 10 in the final stanza.
Brownwood received 13 points from Durham Brown, 12 from Perez, 11 from Ross Strasner, eight from Weston Wolf, four from Casey Friebel and three points from Bennett Windham.
Charlie Ramsay led Mineral Wells with 22 points followed by Wyatt Pappas with 13 points and Edwin Frias with 10 points.
The Lions head to Glen Rose Friday for a 7:15 p.m. encounter to wrap up the first half of District 6-4A competition.
