On Friday night at Yellow Jacket Stadium, Cleburne picked up its first win of the District 7-4A season, 66-60, over Burleson, which fell to 3-8.

Lacy Stinebaugh hit five 3-pointers and led Cleburne with 20 points in the win. Burleson freshman Mackenzie Hailey led all scorers with 21 points, but it wasn’t enough for the Lady Elks.

The pace of the game was choppy from the onset with Cleburne committing four fouls in the first three minutes. Burleson had two in the same time span and the Lady Elks capitalized from the stripe for an early 7-4 lead.

Cleburne responded with four quick points to take the lead off a Courtney Jeffcoat layup.

Lacy Stinebaugh hit her first three shots from the field including two 3-pointers. Her second trey gave Cleburne a 13-11 lead, but Lindsay Bryant responded with an outside shot of her own to give Burleson a 14-13 advantage. Ashley Graham scored in the closing seconds for the Lady Elks to give Burleson a 16-13 lead after the first quarter.

Cleburne got it in foul trouble early after picking up its seventh team foul with 7:47 left in the second quarter. Burleson capitalized from the line and took a 22-15 lead with 5:09 left.

The story of the first half was the sheer number of fouls called in between both teams. There were 31 fouls called which slowed the first half to a crawl and the two teams earned most of their points in the second period from the charity stripe. Cleburne clawed to within two at 34-32 on a Megan Suess 3-pointer as the second quarter finally ended. Bridgette Fierro for Burleson led all scorers with 13 points at halftime.

“It was bad both ways,” Cleburne Head Coach Jamie Calahan said. “They were calling everything and trying to get control of the game. We kept battling and everyone stepped up. It was a total team effort.

“Lacy’s shooting was great and Bria closed out really well. I told them that we’ve been in this situation before so let’s go out and win the game and not play not to lose.”

Stinebaugh drilled her third 3-pointer to start the second half and gave Cleburne a 35-34 advantage.

Fierro banked in a 3-pointer to put the Lady Elks back in front and the Lady Jackets were unable to reclaim the lead as they missed four consecutive layup opportunities.

Stinebaugh continued to hit from the outside as her fourth 3-pointer put Cleburne up, 37-35. Hailey responded with a bucket for the Lady Elks, but Bria McCullough put in a jumper to keep the Lady Jackets up by one. Stinebaugh hit her fifth 3-pointer to give Cleburne a 43-39 lead, their largest of the game. Madison Lander drew Burleson closer with a wild 3-pointer to draw the Lady Elks to within 43-42. Lauren Amos hit two free throws in the closing minutes to put the Lady Elks back up by one to start the final period.

A Courtney Jeffcoat 3-pointer and a basket by Bria McCullough put Cleburne back up by four points. McCullough gave Cleburne its biggest lead of the game on a layup and was fouled in the process by Fierro. Her free throw gave the Lady Jackets a 51-44 lead with seven minutes to go.

McCullough continued to shoot well from the floor in the second half and hit another basket to give Cleburne a nine-point lead.

Fierro picked up her fifth foul with two minutes left in the final quarter. After scoring 16 points in the first half, she was held without a point in the final 16 minutes.