The Lometa Lady Hornets are acquiring a "never-say-die" attitude. Coming off a disappointing four-point loss to Blanket last week, Lometa bounced back with a dominating performance against Santa Anna, earning its first win of the season by 20 points, 61-41, last Friday.

After trailing by a point at the end of the first quarter, the Lady Hornets exploded for 27 points, taking a 41-20 lead into the locker room.

And when Lometa could have rested on its laurels, it maintained its intensity, never allowing the Lady Mountaineers to approach another lead.

"They hustled and played their hearts out until the last buzzer sounded," head coach Brandy Eckermann said. "We played a four-quarter game and played well as a team."

Led by Maria Jaso's 21 points and freshman Marissa Nichols' 19, the Lady Hornets finished with six players connecting on at least two attempts each.

Down low, Lometa dominated with an undersized lineup that has just two players standing taller than 5-6.

"Our post underneath hustled for position and were able to pull down a lot of rebounds," Eckermann said. The only place Lometa significantly struggled was at the free- throw line where the squad combined to go 10-of-19 with Jaso serving as the team's lone sharpshooter, sinking seven of her eight attempts.

Nichols missed five of six free throws, but made up for it by draining two shots from behind the arc.

The wire-to-wire effort was just what the team needed after going 1-9 in district last year and dropping its first game of the season.

Even more telling than the victory, however, was the squad's subsequent loss.

On Tuesday, the Lady Hornets traveled to Richland Springs where they fell by 11 points, 45-34, after a three-point second quarter dropped Lometa into a 17-point hole at the half.

"We talked before the game about how having one bad quarter can be detrimental to the outcome of the game," Eckermann said. "We came out and played a hard first quarter, and in the second quarter we had a bad run and it was uphill from there."

While the Lady Hornets could have easily conceded defeat and waited for the clock to strike zero, Eckermann's crew refused to give up.

"We outscored them in the third and fourth quarter, but it was not enough," the coach said.

Nichols netted 14 points in the game, while 5-7 sophomore forward Kylie Bradley posted eight points. Senior Jeanette Rosales scored seven points on seven-of-12 in free- throw shooting.

The Lady Hornets (1-2) return to the court Tuesday when they host Brookesmith.