The Dublin Lions battled in the Brownwood Holiday Classic Basketball Tournament Dec. 26-28 and narrowly lost third place following a 78-77 thriller overtime loss to Big Spring in the final round.
“This tournament was everything we needed for preparation for district games coming up,” said head Dublin boys basketball coach Wes Grisham. “Although we came up short of third place I’m proud of our guys.”
Grisham added that each member of the team on the bench stepped up since they never had the full roster present during the tourney.
“We know we were the better team and missed some opportunities for the win but we took the close game situations as experience for later down the road,” he said. “Our guys ran it well and we’re confident. We’re now a dominant team and continue to grow.”
The Lions got within striking distance of bronze by winning game 1 against Santo (79-58) and Coleman ( 82- 65).
Their footing faltered against Wall in game 3 (81-44) but they rushed back in the final giving Big Spring a fight to claim third.
Grisham could easily envision a different outcome with all of his players present.
“ It definitely would’ve helped,” he said, adding he believed they ‘beat themselves’ due to missed points and free throws.