Marble Falls girls basketball splits holiday contests

CAPTION: Marble Falls sophomore forward Addy Wood is a scoring threat every time she touches the ball. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Marble Falls High School girls basketball team went 1-1 in games played after the Christmas holiday.

The Lady Mustangs (9-14) lost to Brownwood (20-3) 53-25 Jan. 3 after beating Gatesville 43-35 Dec. 30 in their final non-district games of the season.

Next up is a road trip to Burnet at 6:15 p.m. Friday, Jan. 9, for the start of District 24-4A play.

Brownwood raced to a 20-5 lead in the first quarter thanks to hitting four 3-pointers with two coming from junior point guard Inylah Hall, who finished with 24 points.

In the second quarter, junior forward Trinity Hall knocked down two of her four 3-pointers for a 28-19 lead at the break. She finished with 17 points.

In all, Brownwood hit ten 2-point field goals and nine 3-pointers and were 6 for 8 from the foul line.

“They’re a really good team. We knew that coming in,” Marble Falls head coach Adley Canales said. “That’s why we scheduled them right before district. Our talk with the girls was we need to see things and work things against a really good team before district. We need to get stuff on film we need to work on in games. So we knew that when we scheduled them and you can see that. They’re a good shooting team, and that’s what we want to see.”

Canales noted the basket was unkind to his squad. Many shots rolled around the rim and popped out, didn’t get the necessary bounce to fall in, or hit the back of the rim. Canales said he liked the shot selections, particularly from the outside shooters.

“We missed a lot of good shots that would have made the score look better,” he said. “Offensively, I thought we were patient and got open looks. We made them guard us for a period of time and we got open looks. The thing with the girls was we want to give up a good shot for great shots. And I felt like we got a lot of great shots. We just didn’t hit them.” 

Marble Falls was led by freshman post Emma Martin, who scored all of the Lady Mustangs’ points in the second half. She finished with 11.

“She gives us what we need off the bench,” the coach said. “She’s aggressive towards the goal. There’s not a drop off when we go to her, which is great.”

Gatesville took an 8-7 lead in the first quarter, but the Lady Mustangs outscored the Lady Hornets 13-8 in the second for a 20-16 advantage at the half. Marble Falls outscored Gatesville 23-19 in the second half to cruise to victory.

“We did absolutely everything we wanted and we were successful,” Canales said. “We gave up three single-digit quarters. We felt confident coming to that game. We’re playing a team that gives us different looks with their size. We played really well.” 

About the only complaint was at the foul line where the Lady Mustangs were 12 for 32.

“We did everything we wanted to,” the coach said. “You wish you could extend that a little bit more.”