Marble Falls girls basketball beats Burnet
Marble Falls freshman forward Emma Martin, who is guarded by Burnet freshman guard Rowyn Mulhollan, led the Lady Mustangs in scoring thanks to her toughness in the paint. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School girls basketball team defeated Burnet 54-35 Jan. 28 in a District 24-4A contest that was played a day later than scheduled because classes were cancelled Jan. 27 because of icy road conditions.
“It was a good win,” Marble Falls head coach Adley Canales said. “It was a game we needed to have. We got it done. It wasn’t the prettiest, but we never apologize for a win. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter if you win by one or 100; it all counts the same. So really proud of the girls. That’s a game we needed to have and we got it done.”
The Lady Mustangs (14-15, 5-1) led 3-2 when sophomore forward Addy Wood stole the ball and passed to senior center Leslie Reynoso, who found sophomore guard Mikaela Valdez for a lay-up to start a 6-0 run. By the end of the first quarter, Marble Falls led 11-7.
Though Marble Falls freshman forward Emma Martin scored on a drive, the Lady Dawgs answered with a 6-0 run that included a 3-pointer by senior guard Peyton Allen to tie the contest at 13-13. Wood connected on free throws and sophomore guard Ally Moran knocked down a 3-pointer to give the Lady Mustangs a 19-16 lead with 2:01 to play in the half.
That started a 10-0 run with Valdez, Moran and Wood scoring for a 25-17 lead at the intermission.
Canales said his message during the break was a familiar one.
“We have to play our game,” he recalled saying. “We’re playing into their hands. They were dictating the tempo and the pace. And it was giving us problems, so we just needed to reset and play our game, not try do too much and go to our strengths, which are our forwards – play through them. And I think we did a better job in the second half and were able to extend to lead.”
Valdez connected on a bucket for a 27-17 advantage to begin the series of bucket exchanges with Burnet though the Lady Mustangs outscored the Lady Dawgs 13-8 in the third quarter 38-25 lead after three periods and 16-10 in the final stanza.
Martin led all scorers with 14 points followed by Wood with 12, Valdez scored 10, Moran added eight, junior forward Alexis Sprott and senior guard Rayleigh Crim dropped in three apiece, and junior post Kenley Virdell and Reynoso each finished with two.
While Marble Falls won the rematch by virtually the same score as in the first game — 46-28 Jan. 9 — the difference was the Lady Mustangs got scoring from mostly three players earlier this month.
That wasn’t the case two weeks later.
“We don’t want to be relying on one person,” the coach said. “When the scorebook looks like this, there’s a bunch of girls scoring. It’s hard to defend one player when they try to. So there wasn’t a dropoff. We were pretty consistent quarterwise (in scoring). Fourth quarter may have been our best and that shows that we kept going throughout the whole game and found the open looks.”
The other important piece is when the Lady Mustangs built a lead, Canales was able to use his bench freely to give reserves extended minutes. He pointed out that Marble Falls, which hosts Lampasas in another important district matchup, has only one day of preparation before taking the court again.
“That’s huge for us, and having the bench come in and play significant minutes and contribute is big because we weren’t in a gym for four days,” he said. “There wasn’t anything anybody could do. We’re just kind of stuck, so there’s nobody running, there’s nobody doing anything like that. We haven’t had a long break like that since Christmas when we’re required to get the days off. So yeah, I’ve been able to go to everybody and then play significant minutes and contribute is huge because now we just have one day before Friday.”
All district games were played a day later than scheduled. Salado (23-7, 6-0) beat Jarrell 54-29 and Lampasas (18-10, 4-2) defeated Taylor 51-27.
Marble Falls hosts Lampasas Friday, Jan. 30, with the junior varsity playing at 5 p.m. and the varsity at 6:30 p.m. The Lady Mustangs won the first game 42-39 Jan. 13.
Burnet welcomes Salado Friday, Jan. 30, with the junior varsity playing at 5 p.m., the varsity at 6:15 p.m. and the freshmen at 7:30 p.m. The Lady Eagles won the first contest 57-21 Jan. 13.
CAPTION: Burnet senior post Wrigley Mulhollan keeps control of the ball while maintaining her position near the lane. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
