Faith Academy girls basketball beats McKinney Christian Academy

CAPTION: Junior guard Lilly Koziel (left) and sophomore guard Cuyleigh Zimmerman are the work horses behind the Lady Flames’ pressure defense. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Faith Academy of Marble Falls girls basketball team defeated McKinney Christian Academy 45-21 Dec. 16.

The Lady Flames did it by building an 18-4 led by the intermission.

“We played really an amazing defense in the first half,” head coach Harvey Vaughn said.

Offensively, senior post Natalie Weems scored 16 of the 18 points. She finished with 18

Vaughn credited the Warriors for their work after halftime.

“They made some adjustments, so they were able to score a few more points in the second half,” he said. “But we also did the same thing. We got a little better offensively. We started shooting the ball a little better and ended up scoring 27 points.”

The Lady Flames, who spent the first few weeks of December practicing, are showing the results now.

“I think just the way they’re playing now is attributed to that,” Vaughn said. “It’s just enough to where there’s no longer a question about what they’re supposed to do on anything, whether it’s the press, whether it’s the press break. The one thing that (MCC) did really well, that I thought they did really well, was breaking our press. We still got turnovers. And we still got pressure on them. They did a pretty good job getting it across (mid court) and being very methodical to get the ball across. I expected we would have scored more, but part of that was they did a really good job getting the ball across.” 

Though the coach is encouraged, he noted there are still places for the Lady Flames to improve.

“Will they still make mistakes?” he said. “Yes, but it’s not mistakes because they don’t know what they’re doing. It’s just, execution mistakes or maybe the other team’s play tough defense or whatever it is. But it’s a lot less unforced turnovers. And when you know what you’re doing, you can play faster, you can play harder. When you’re wondering what you’re supposed to do, you can’t fly around. I think that it’s combination of all those things. They show flashes of brilliance here and there, but I’ve really been impressed in with the consistency.”

He noted MCC had six players graduate last spring.

“They’re in the rebuilding phase, so they’ve got some good players,” Vaughn said. “They’re just young. And obviously we’ve got some youngness to us. I was talking with their coach. I said, “If it makes you feel any better, last year I was right where you are, so you have a year of development. But he’s a really good coach and I think he’ll have them back next year iIn competing.” 

Faith welcomes Austin Hill Country at 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 19.

CAPTION: Another solid defender is sophomore guard Olivia Kraenzel. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro