Faith boys basketball beats Dallas Yavneh
CAPTION: Faith Academy senior Jase Marshall’s presence in the paint is key for the defense. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Faith Academy of Marble Falls boys basketball team defeated Dallas Yavneh Academy 32-30 Dec. 13.
The win extends the Flames’ (8-8) winning streak against the Bulldogs to three straight in four years and their current winning streak right now to four consecutive victories.
Yavneh, which was ranked No. 1 in the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools’ Class 3A poll of the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, hit two free throws with under a minute left. Faith, which was ranked No. 3 in the same poll, turned the ball over but was fouled. And though both free throws were missed, the Flames tightened defensively. Senior guard Jase Marshall rebounded the miss and threw to sophomore guard Hudson Tatum, who dribbled to run out the clock.
“Even better, right?” head coach Zakk Revelle said of the defensive stand. “You get to end with a stop and not have to win it on the offensive end. We want to play good defense – that’s a staple of our program. And so to be able to finish the game and win the game with a stop was a cool deal.”
The contest was close throughout with Faith leading by a point at the end of the first quarter, three at the half and at the end of the third period.
“We didn’t take the lead until pretty late in the third quarter,” Revelle said. “Probably with under a minute left in the third quarter, we took the lead and then we never really gave it up from there. We kind of just stayed up by three.”
The two programs have developed a friendship over the years. The Yavneh program welcomes the Flames to eat the Sabbath lunch with the Bulldogs and then hang out before taking the court.
“It was a really great time and then played a basketball game that ended up being a pretty entertaining one for the fans,” the coach said. “Maybe not as entertaining for the coaches as we probably wanted to make a few more shots and offenses look a little bit better. Winning is really hard, and we made it a little bit harder on ourselves. We probably turned it over a little bit more than we wanted to and didn’t make all the free throws we wanted to. However, a win is a win and we won the game. And so we’re, we’re really happy. It’s a really great program. They’re ranked No. 1 in the state, so to go into their place and beat them is an awesome, awesome deal.”
Though the game was low scoring, Revelle said what counts is that Faith had more points when the clock struck triple zeroes.
“For the last nine years, we’ve been really, really talented offensively almost every year, with the exception of maybe the first year when we were just really young,” he said. “Since then, we’ve kind of made a calling of being really talented offensively, and what we’ve realized and learned is that it’s really great to be talented offensively, but you’re going to go to gyms where you’re just not going to make shots. And you’re going to play in games where you just don’t make shots. But defense always travels. And if you can play defense, you can be in any game. In these big games that we’ve played in, we’ve played in spurts really good defense. Those games prepared us for games against a talented Yavneh team. So to be able to come away with a win and do it defensively, is a really great feeling, and I’m happy for our guys.”
Faith is at Austin Brentwood Christian Tuesday, Dec. 16, with the junior varsity playing at 4:30 p.m. and the varsity at 6 p.m. and welcomes Austin St. Stephens Friday, Dec. 19, with the junior varsity playing at 5 p.m. and the varsity at 7:30 p.m.
