The Brownwood Lady Lions shaved a 15-point halftime deficit to a single bucket early in the fourth period, but the Merkel Lady Badgers withstood the change to capture a 55-42 victory Tuesday at the Brownwood Coliseum.
“We talked at halftime about the first four minutes being important,” said Lady Lions 12th-year head coach Heather Hohertz, whose team faced a 35-20 deficit at intermission. “I thought we came out OK and fought back there toward the end of the third quarter, but we can’t go through slumps and go up and down and have negative plays on offense. We can’t get a steal and end up turning it over, we have to be better than that.”
In a defensive struggle between former district rivals, the Brownwood Lady Lions generated just enough offense to slip past the Class 5A Abilene Wylie Lady Bulldogs for a 35-29 non-district victory Friday afternoon at Warren Gym.
Coming off a 52-20 loss to Midland Greenwood Tuesday, the Lady Lions (6-7) are now heading into the Christmas break with victories in three of their last four outings.
“It was an ugly game but any win we can get right now is a good win,” said Lady Lions 12th-year head coach Heather Hohertz. “The girls played hard, their effort was good. I’m proud of the way they bounced back from Tuesday’s performance. We weren’t ready to go and it was one of the worst performances I’ve seen from them. They bounced back in a big way today.”