PHOTOS BY RICHARD AKRIDGE Lampasas senior Sarah Bishop scored a game-high 19 points, including eight in the second quarter, but it was not enough as Burnet won on the Lady Badgers’ home court. The guard only missed one shot during the loss. The Lady Badgers are beginning to show the cohesiveness head coach Stuart Beckwith has been waiting patiently for.

Lampasas has struggled with its offensive execution for a majority of the season, but the squad appeared to begin turning the corner Friday night against Burnet. The Lady Badgers scored 54 points -- one of the team’s top scoring performances on the year.

Unfortunately, they needed more than that, and Burnet earned a 63- 54 victory in Lampasas.

Although the end result was not what the coach desired, he was pleased with the overall performance of his 4-10 team.

“I was real proud of how the kids played. They played real hard,” Beckwith said. “I thought Sarah Bishop shot the ball well. [Madison Morris] came off the bench and gave us a big boost, and Lauren Barlow was her normal self.”

Junior Kayla Prescott scored two points, dished out three assists and got a steal. The three players combined for 43 of the Lady Badgers’ points. Bishop led the way with a gamehigh 19 points on seven-of-eight shooting, including two 3-pointers. Barlow added 16 points and five rebounds.

Post Morris scored eight points and was aggressive all evening, going to the free-throw line six times. She made four.

As a team, Lampasas connected on 18 of its 23 free throws -- an area that has plagued the Lady Badgers most of the season -- and was 17 of 29 from the field.

Lampasas quickly jumped out to a 4-0 lead but let it slip away as Burnet went on a 21-6 run and opened up an 11-point advantage.

The Lady Badgers responded in the second quarter behind Bishop’s hot hand.

The senior scored eight in the period, as Lampasas exploded for 18 of the next 26 points. The outburst trimmed the Lady Bulldogs’ lead to a single point at 29-28 before the squad entered halftime down 31-28.

Following the break, Burnet was back on the attack, constructing another large lead. The Lady Bulldogs widened the gap to 14 points at 50-36.

But the Lady Badgers fought back, and impressive assists from sophomore post Hailey Morrison and senior guard Makayla Valles set up scores by Kayla Prescott and Bishop, respectively. The buckets made the score 50-42 heading into the fourth quarter.

“I thought we executed pretty well,” Beckwith said. “We changed offenses several times, and we had a couple of new ones that we weren’t even sure if the kids could execute.”

Apparently, they are quick learners.

Lampasas hit 10 of 17 shots in the second half.

The Lady Badgers pulled to within five points, 59-54, with 44.62 remaining but could not complete the comeback, as they were forced to foul with the clock working against them.

Burnet (10-4) finished the evening 10 of 12 at the free-throw stripe.

Lampasas travels to Leander tonight for a 7 p.m. start.

***

Both subvarsity teams picked up victories over Burnet.

The freshmen, led by Kailey Davis’ team-high 15 points, won 36-12, while the junior varsity won by 11 points, 37-26. Marisa Bogart was the team’s top scorer with 10 points.

The freshmen play Leander tonight at 5:15 p.m. with the junior varsity following at 6 p.m.