Junior Lauren Barlow scored 12 of her 24 points in the fourth quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers that cut Ellison's lead to two before the Lady Eagles sealed the victory at the free throw line. The Lady Badgers did not leave Killeen with a victory, but they certainly made a statement.

Looking up from a 14-point hole in the second half, Lampasas fought Ellison to the bitter end, cutting the Lady Eagles lead down to two points in the final 15 seconds before falling 57-53.

Although the Lady Badgers could not pull out the road victory, head coach Stuart Beckwith knows his team's never-say-die attitude will pay dividends in the future.

"It was a good opportunity for us to just lie down and quit," the coach said. "Instead of doing that, we had kids that fought hard and got us back in the ball game.

"We've got to learn when a big possession is up, how to run offensively and how to execute, but we'll learn. We're young right now; we'll learn."

After a lackluster first half in which the Lady Badgers (2-4) gave up more second-chance points than Beckwith cares to remember, Lampasas buckled down defensively and almost rallied to victory behind the clutch performance of junior Lauren Barlow.

The 5-8 post scored 12 of her game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter as the Lady Badgers scrambled to stay in the contest.

Holding Ellison scoreless through the first four minutes of the final period, Lampasas chipped away at the advantage, getting to within two points at 55-53, after Barlow connected on back-to-back 3-pointers. The second trey came with 14 seconds left.

Unfortunately, with a rapidly diminishing clock serving as a second opponent down the stretch, the Lady Badgers were forced to foul to conserve time.

A pair of Ellison free throws with 8.7 seconds remaining in the contest proved to be the difference as Lampasas had the ball stolen before attempting a final, desperation bid to keep the game alive.

"To be honest, I think we were intimidated [early]," Beckwith said. "We were worried about them being bigger, stronger and faster than us, and we were worried that we couldn't match up very well.

"Once they figured out, 'Hey, we can play with these people,' then they started blocking out a little better, they started attacking the basket a little more often, and they started doing some pretty good things."

Along with Barlow, freshman Chelsea Smith also finished the game in double digits, scoring 11 points. Carey Yeary netted six points on a pair of 3-pointers in the first quarter.

Defensively, Kayla Lowery blocked three shots and had a pair of steals.

While the late surge was keyed by Barlow's sharpshooting, the true turning point came halfway through the third quarter after a lack of boxing out during a missed free-throw attempt allowed the Lady Eagles to score off an offensive rebound.

Beckwith immediately called a timeout to address the situation.

"I felt like we lost our focus. We were playing scared," the coach said. "I jokingly told them that they need to be more scared of me than of them [Ellison].

"They were going to play Killeen Ellison for [12] more minutes, but they had to live with me until March."

The Lady Badgers return to the court tonight for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff against Belton inside Bozarth- Fowler Gymnasium.