The No. 11 Brownwood Lady Lions established a 20-point first-half lead Wednesday night at the Brownwood Coliseum before the Hereford Lady Whitefaces made a feverish second-half charge that eventually trimmed the deficit to a single possession. But a pair of clutch buckets down the stretch allowed the Lady Lions to hold on for a 56-49 triumph – their 11th win in a row – and the TexasBank Holiday Classic Girls Big School Division championship.
“Tonight in the first half I thought was the team I tried to push them to be all season,” said Lady Lions 17th-year head coach Heather Hohertz. “We looked really good in the first half. As a coach you want to sit back and that’s what you want to see because you push them so hard and want to see that type of product. I was proud of them in the first half, but then we faced some adversity because we came out flat after halftime. We didn’t do a good enough job at halftime to get them ready to finish the game. We had more turnovers than shot attempts in the third quarter, but we faced that adversity and found a way to pull it out at the end.”
The Lady Lions (19-3) owned a 31-11 advantage with 4:15 left in the second quarter, but at the 3:20 mark of the fourth period Hereford (15-7) had clawed its way to within a bucket, 51-49.
Trinity Roberts, who led Brownwood with 19 points in the final, was forced to leave the game with 2:52 left after injuring her knee. Demayha Hooker stepped into the role and with 2:11 left in the contest, knocked down a 10-foot jumper – her only bucket of the contest – which pushed the Lady Lions’ advantage back to two possessions, 53-49.
Hereford came up empty on its next trip down the floor, and the Lady Lions responded with a three-pointer from tournament MVP Nylah Hall, which padded the cushion to 56-49 at the 1:37 juncture of the final quarter.
“Jojo (Hooker) hit that 10-footer from the baseline and that was a huge shot for us, and Nylah hit the dagger with that three-pointer,” Hohertz said. “I have a team full of fighters and competitors and they want to win. Whatever it takes, they’re going to find a way to win, and we did that tonight. This is just a fun team to watch, especially the one that showed up in the first half.”
The Lady Lions shot 39 percent (18 of 46) from the floor, including 31 percent (6 of 19) from beyond the three-point arc, along with a 70 percent (14 of 20) conversion rate on free throws.
Along with Roberts’ 19 points, Icess Hall chipped in 15 points, Jentry Coalson contributed eight, Jade Morin finished with seven, Nylah Hall scored all five of her points in the fourth period, and Hooker tacked on two points with her clutch jumper.
“That’s one of the reasons why we’ve been so successful this year,” Hohertz said. “If it’s not Nylah it can be Trin, or Icess, or Jade, even Jentry and Hannah (Deen) before she went out. That’s what makes this team so diverse. It doesn’t matter who it is, any of them can go out and get us double digit points, along with the steals and rebounds.”
Though Brownwood recorded just three steals against Hereford, the Lady Lions pulled down 24 rebounds and committed only 13 turnovers.
“Icess was big for us handling the ball and got some big tips,” Hohertz said. “Nylah had a bit of an off night offensively, I think they really keyed on her, but Trin had a big game, especially in the first half, and Jade and Jentry rebounded well. It’s just a fun team that’s on the same page, that’s on a mission and wants to win and continue to get better.”
Brownwood led 22-9 after one quarter as Roberts poured in 11 points in the opening stanza, Icess Hall added six points and Coalson sank a three-pointer. At halftime, the Lady Lions were in front 36-22, but Hereford responded with a 10-0 to run to start the second half, closing the gap to 36-32 at the 3:21 mark of the third period, and the fight to the finish commenced from there.
Mia Gomez finished with 15 points for Hereford trailed by 11 from Azlyn Zallar, eight from Kaydence Ramirez, six from Samantha Grajeda, five from Arissa Alaniz and one point from Jazzlyn Acosta. With Brownwood up 51-45 with 4:41 left, back-to-back buckets from Grajeda brought the Lady Whitefaces as they close as they would get, 51-49.
The Lady Lions are next in action at noon Saturday at Marble Falls in their final outing before the start of District 6-4A play Friday, Jan. 9 at home against Mineral Wells.
“We have to continue to build off the first half and continue to put ourselves in good situations for four quarters,” Hohertz said. “Our district is one of the toughest in 4A. It’s going to be a dogfight night in and night out, and we’re going to continue to face adversity. We have to be able to handle things because they’re not always going to go our way.”
