Marble Falls girls basketball loses to Salado

CAPTION: Marble Falls sophomore forward Addy Wood (12) and senior center Leslie Reynoso make it difficult for Salado to get comfortable in its half-court offensive sets. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Marble Falls High School girls basketball team lost to Salado 41-38 Jan. 16 in District 24-4A play.

The game went back and forth and was tied early at 10-10 and 13-13 midway through the second period.

But Marble Falls’ foul trouble forced head coach Adley Canales to make a change in the final two minutes of the half with the Lady Eagles (20-7, 3-0) leading by two points.

Salado ended the half on a 10-4 run thanks to adding two buckets and Marble Falls suffered two key turnovers in the final moments to trail 23-17 at the intermission.

“We felt like we let it get away at the end,” Canales said. “We had three turnovers in the final minute alone. I felt like we gave it away in them capitalizing on those possessions, those turnovers. So at halftime, we just talked about resetting. There’s no way we can undo what happened. We can just control what’s in front of us.”

Marble Falls sophomore forward Addy Wood drew a foul 16 seconds into the third quarter and freshman forward Emma Martin got a steal and passed to senior guard Rayleigh Crim to trim the deficit to 23-20 24 seconds later.

And though Marble Falls outscored Salado 10-6 in the period, the Lady Eagles’ six points came off steals from their press breaker where their guards put massive pressure on Marble Falls’ primary ball handlers.

When the Lady Mustangs did set up an offense, they went to the basket as highlighted by a backdoor cut by Wood with an assist from Martin and a 3-point play by Martin thanks to an assist from sophomore guard Mikaela Valdez. Martin also was fouled as she attempted a shot and sank two free throws to trim the deficit to 29-27 headed into the fourth quarter.

Salado scored on a backside bucket to begin the scoring that continued to be back and forth with the Lady Eagles maintaining the lead that ballooned to as much as seven points with just under five minutes remaining.

With about three minutes left, the Lady Eagles went to their stall offense.

But Marble Falls tightened and went on a 6-0 run thanks to a Wood putback and four Valdez free throws with 1:04 left in the game.

After a Salado timeout with 43.49 seconds remaining and leading 37-36, junior forward Alexis Sprott stole the ball and moved quickly down the court. But a quick Marble Falls shot attempt was blocked and the Lady Mustangs had to foul to preserve time.

That’s how the Lady Eagles built a three-point cushion though Wood connected on both of her free throws with 19.5 seconds remaining to trim the deficit to 39-38. That’s as close as Marble Falls came as Salado blocked two Marble Falls shot attempts and made the front end of two free throws to escape with the win.

“I thought we beat ourselves with the amount of turnovers we had,” Canales said. “We hadn’t done that in awhile. We just felt rushed and panic. Give Salado credit. They put that pressure on us. We just beat ourselves. I don’t know the number of turnovers we had. But I don’t think we’ve had that many in a really, really long time.”

Though the outcome wasn’t what the Lady Mustangs wanted, the coach pointed to several positives.

Their goal is to hold opponents to 10 or fewer points in each quarter, and they did that in the first and third quarters. No Lady Eagle was in double figures and Salado was 11 for 19 from the foul line for the contest. However, they attempted 10 free throws in the final stanza and connected on six. Six of those attempts were because the Lady Mustangs fouled to preserve time.

Canales went back to the two-point deficit going into the final eight minutes. He commended his players for “resetting” to start the second half and give themselves a chance at a win.

“It’s a two-point ball game,” he said. “From there on out, it was going to come back to who had the ball last.”

Wood led all scorers with 14 followed by Martin with six, Crim and Valdez with five each, senior center Leslie Reynoso with four, and sophomore guard Ally Moran and Sprott with two apiece.

As a team, the Lady Mustangs were 18 for 29 from the foul line.

Defensively, Reynoso protected the lane with numerous blocks. She, Martin and the other forwards did their part to limit second-chance opportunities.

“That goes back to our defense,” the coach said. “We talked about it before the game. If we want to be successful, it’s going to come down to our defense. We gave ourselves every chance. We had big rebounds and things like that. And we did have some mental lapses that got us. We forgot to boxout on free throws. Those are things we can work on to fix. We feel good about ourselves. There’s things we can clean up on our own.”

Marble Falls travels to play at Taylor Tuesday, Jan. 20, with the junior varsity taking the court at 5 p.m. and the varsity to follow. It’s a doubleheader with the boys.

CAPTION: Senior center Leslie Reynoso holds a commemorative basketball for grabbing for more than 500 rebounds as a four-year letterman. She was presented the keepsake before tipoff against Salado. Courtesy photo