PHOTOS BY RICHARD AKRIDGE Eduardo Davila (center) and Vann Millican (left) both attempt to block a Brownwood player's shot during the Badgers' 57-47 loss Tuesday. Despite playing impressive defense, Lampasas players did not provide enough offense to complement Heath Hopson's 33-point performance. The Badgers are off until next Friday when they travel to No 2 Lake Travis for the district opener. Badgers head coach Scott Harrelson knows all his players are very talented.

And that is exactly what makes Tuesday's loss to Brownwood all the more frustrating.

"Each player, at the level they are now, could have started on any team I have had here at Lampasas," Harrelson said. "It is very difficult to pick out the last player on the bench because they all have ability."

Unfortunately, senior Heath Hopson was the only Badger to establish any offensive rhythm against the Lions, and the home team lost 57-47 inside Bozarth- Fowler Gymnasium.

Hopson posted 33 points on 11- of-17 shooting (9 of 10 free throws), but his teammates combined to connect on just five shots in 26 attempts.

Senior guard Jonathan VanLiew puts defensive pressure on his man. "He does everything we need him to do, and we just didn't have good shooting from the other players," Harrelson said. "We just need a couple of them to make baskets."

Guard Astin Murray was the team's second-leading scorer with six points, while nobody else tallied more than two.

"You can't win that way," the coach said. "That was the bottom line. I think our defense was good enough to win."

Uncharacteristically cold were seniors Jordy Carnes and Warren Scott, who each went one-of-eight from the floor for a total of four points despite averaging a hair over 15 points between them.

"They played hard, but we need Warren and Jordy to score," Harrelson said.

The duo did, however, help out in other ways. They snatched six rebounds apiece with three coming off the offensive glass to complement Hopson's team-high 11 boards (seven offensive).

Other players chipped in as well.

Jonathan VanLiew handed out a game-high four assists and stole the ball twice to match Jorge Mendoza's pair of steals.

Colton Perkins added two rebounds and an assist, and recent addition from the junior varsity squad Secody Howard started and grabbed a pair of rebounds.

Defensively, as a whole, Lampasas was solid except for allowing too many offensive rebounds to be converted into putbacks.

The Badgers took care of the ball too, committing nearly seven fewer turnovers than they average (22.9 per game).

In the end, it is impossible to win if a team cannot score, and nowhere did the Badgers' scoring woes glare more brightly than at the end of the halves, as Hopson was responsible for all but one point in the second and fourth quarters combined.

Although the 6-4 guard is good, he's not good enough to win by himself. He needs his teammates to hit shots, especially uncontested attempts, the coach said.

"It's not like they're shooting over a hand," Harrelson said. "Nobody is forcing shots. They're taking good shots, they're just missing them."

After trailing by just one point at halftime, 26-25, the Badgers gave up 24 points in the third quarter as the Lions drained three 3-pointers during a stretch of five unanswered scoring possessions.

"At halftime, I said, 'You need to come out and be more aggressive. We've got to start out strong,' " Harrelson said. "We had to get somebody else scoring and doing things, and we come right out and we're soft on a couple plays, and they hit a couple of shots.

"We didn't get anything until the end of the third quarter. We didn't get into a flow, and our defense started to falter."

Lampasas got five points out of Murray and two from Eduardo Davila in the quarter before Hopson carried the team offensively in the fourth.

The Badgers clamped down on defense in the final period, allowing just seven points, but Brownwood ran out the clock for the final four minutes of the game to ensure the victory.

"We stayed out of foul trouble which hurt us at the end because we couldn't put them on the freethrow line, and we had to foul frantically at the end just to get them to go to the free-throw line," Harrelson said."

The Badgers are idle until next Friday, when they travel to face No. 2 Lake Travis in the district opener.