Marble Falls girls basketball loses to Harker Heights

CAPTION: Marble Falls head coach Adley Canales calls senior forward Leslie Reynoso the team’s “rock” for their all-around play. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Marble Falls High School girls basketball team lost to Killeen Harker Heights 48-32 Dec. 2.

The Lady Knights went to their full-court press immediately. By the end, they led 22-5

“We broke the press and got looks,” head coach Adley Canales said. “We just didn’t score again the rest of the quarter. I really attribute it to just coming back from a break. We just started out flat, and it was too big to come back for us.”

He said Harker Heights didn’t do anything extraordinary.

“They didn’t do anything we haven’t seen before or anything we weren’t prepared for,” he said. “We looked lost on defense a couple times and then we just talked about it, got them reset, and they were good the rest of the way. We were just a step too slow on everything.”

Senior forward Leslie Reynoso led with six points, 12 rebounds, two blocks and an assist in 31 minutes of play.

“She was our rock,” the coach said. “She got us back on track. She just did it all for us. She played how we expect a senior to play.”

Sophomore guard Mikaela Valdez also had a big game for the Lady Mustangs.

“She controlled the offense for us,” Canales said. “She played really good defense. She played 28 to 30 minutes so she barely came off the floor. Between those two, they kept us together and got us back into it.” 

He commended his players for their fight throughout the game. But the beginning paved the way for the outcome.

“The slow start killed us,” Canales said. “We expected to play (the whole game like we did the) second, third and fourth quarters. If you look at those three, we won the game by two. We thought we were doing to get into a dogfight, and it was that in the second, third and fourth quarters. It’s just the first quarter, we came out flat.”  

The Lady Mustangs will compete in Llano’s Deer Classic beginning with facing the home team at 6:20 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4, at Llano High School then Bartlett at 10:20 a.m. Friday, Dec. 5, at Llano Junior High. Results against Llano and Bartlett will determine who and where they’ll play Friday afternoon. They’ll return Saturday for one more game.

“I want to see us play the way we did in the second, third and fourth quarters (against Harker Heights) from the beginning,” the coach said. “That’s been our goal – start fast. We know we can finish strong. We just have to start that way. It makes it a lot easier for us when we’re not having to dig out of a hole. Even if it’s a tight game, we feel confident that we can finish it. When we dig ourselves in a hole and then decide to play, it’s too much at times.” 

Canales said the objectives the rest of December are clear.

“From a coach’s perspective, we want to start dialing in rotations, we want to shore up what we do,” he said. “We want to be crisper, shaper, more technical in doing the little things right. But that’s our goal for this month leading up to our first district game against Burnet (in early January).”

CAPTION: Marble Falls sophomore Mikaela Valdez operated the offense the way head coach Adley Canales wants. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro