Marble Falls boys basketball loses to Lago Vista
CAPTION: Junior guard Beckett Berkman remains a constant scoring threat for the Mustangs. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School boys basketball team lost to Lago Vista 47-33 Nov. 14 in non-district play.
Head coach John Berkman said the game was closer than the score indicates.
The Vikings led 11-7 after the first period, 22-13 at the half and 37-28 going into the final stanza.
“We just didn’t get a good start, and it really hurt us the whole game,” Berkman said. “We never could find a good offensive rhythm. We played well enough defensively, I thought, to keep ourselves in the game and keep it close, which we were able to do. I know it was a 14-point game, but we gave them some free throws down the stretch, just trying to keep ourselves around and relevant. We just weren’t making shots, and we had too many turnovers.”
He noted that at one point in the second half, the Mustangs (0-2) cut the deficit to five points.
“By getting some stops and coming down and scoring on the inside,” he said. “Then we came down and just made some silly turnovers. We had too many turnovers, I think, that really kind of got us. And credit to them. They were aggressive defensively and ready to go in those positions, in those spots, that made it where we struggled.”
Coming out of the loss to Cedar Park Vista Ridge, where the Mustangs were looking for more consistency with their press breaker, the coach said he saw it against Lago Vista.
“I feel good about the way we handled the pressure coming up the floor,” he said. “Most of our turnovers occurred in the halfcourt, and those are just things that we can cleanup easily. But they have to be cleaned up for sure.”
Junior guard Beckett Berkman scored 13 points and had six rebounds and two steals, while senior center Cameron Plumlee contributed 12 points and grabbed six rebounds, junior forward Vance Levert scored four points and grabbed four rebounds, junior forward Marc Barrios added two points and three rebounds, and junior guard Cypress Neve finished with two points and two rebounds.
The coach stopped short in saying many teams’ defenses are ahead of their offenses early in the season.
“As their coach, I’ve got to get them ready to go,” he said. “This year for us, we’re a young team. I’m not trying to make excuses. We just didn’t have our best night offensively. And we have to be able to clean that up.”
The Mustangs travel to play at Lake Belton Tuesday, Nov. 18, with the subvarsities playing 5 p.m. and the varsity at 6:30 p.m. They end the week playing in the Florence Tournament Friday-Saturday, Nov. 20-22. They begin pool play against Lucas Christian at 5:30 p.m. Thursday then face Slidell at 10 a.m. and Vanguard College Prep at 2:30 p.m., both on Friday. Their final game will be played Saturday and opponent will be based on their pool record.
Despite the loss, John Berkman noted the Mustangs have plenty they can build on.
“I do feel like our guys played hard the whole game,” Berkman said. “I don’t think that they weren’t. They were trying to give their best effort. We’ve just got to clean up some things offensively, so that we can be more effective. I felt like we played better offensively in our two scrimmages, and sometimes that happens when you’ve got a team that’s not played on the varsity level before that first varsity game. There’s a lot of nerve, and anxiousness is there. So it causes you to be off on your offensive things. Effort can show up on the defensive end, but sometimes you have to be able to slow down just a little bit to be able to be effective offensively. And so we’ll get there.”
CAPTION: Junior forward Vance Levert makes the most of his minutes as he is a force inside. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
