Marble Falls boys basketball loses to Lampasas
CAPTION: Marble Falls sophomore guard Beckett Berkman all-around play forced the Lampasas Badgers to account for him. Photo by Christopher A. Miles/Christopher A. Miles Photography
The Marble Falls High School boys basketball team lost to Lampasas 50-43 Jan. 30 in District 24-4A play.
It was a rematch of a 60-35 loss to the Badgers Jan. 13.
“We gave our best effort,” head coach John Berkman said. “We didn’t lose because we didn’t play well. We lost to a team that’s a really good team, and you can feel good about that when you go home.”
The Mustangs (9-17, 8-0) raced to a 10-4 lead thanks to shots by junior guards Cypress Neve and Beckett Berkman. But the Badgers (24-7, 8-0) responded with an 8-1 run to take a 12-11 lead with 2 minutes and 7 seconds left in the first quarter. They ended the opening stanza deadlocked at 14-14.
“Our guys came ready to go,” John Berkman said. “We’ve been able to get off to a really good start. We scored 14 in the first quarter, which for us is a good quarter. I would consider 14 in any quarter a good quarter. We were doing a really good job of moving without the ball, and they have a tendency to stand and watch on defense. So we knew that we’d have an advantage by moving without the ball. Our guys did a good job of that and then knocking down the open shots when we had them, which was good. We didn’t go too quick. It helped us to run time off the clock and make them have to play some defense.”
The Badgers, who scored the last bucket of the first period, began the second by racing to a 19-14 lead and forcing Marble Falls to call a timeout with 5:35 remaining in the half.
The rest of the Mustangs’ scoring featured Beckett Berkman: a pass to junior forward Marc Barrios for a basket, a drive to the lane for teardrop bucket, and a backdoor cut for another teardrop bucket thanks to a pass from junior guard Charlie Martin to trail 21-20 at the half.
“Our defense was really kind of the story (in the second period),” the coach said.
Lampasas began the third quarter on a 7-0 run that ended when senior center Cameron Plumlee scored on a putback to trim the deficit to 28-20. And though the Mustangs tried to mount a comeback, the Badgers answered every basket with one of their own to outscore Marble Falls 14-7 and take a 35-27 advantage into the fourth period.
The Badgers led by as many as 13 points with 4:36 remaining in the contest and went to their stall with about 3 minutes left.
But Barrios and Neve connected on free throws to cut the deficit to 46-39 with 1:11 remaining in the game.
Free throws ended the scoring for both squads.
“We played a great first half,” the coach said. “The third quarter kind of let us down a little bit. They went on a little bit of a run there and we didn’t help ourselves. In the fourth quarter, we came alive and were able to make it a game. I’m real proud of our guys’ efforts all the way till the end because they were doing exactly what we wanted them to do. We had to foul at the end. Our guys did what you’re supposed to do at the end of a game. That was important for us to be able to do.”
Beckett Berkman finished with 18 points thanks to making 7 of 8 free throws, four 2-pointers and a 3-pointer.
“I’m just proud of how hard he plays all the time,” the coach said of his son. “He’s our best all-around player, our best defensive player as far as consistency goes. And he led all scorers in the whole game. Part of that is his grit, part of that is his teammates working hard. They work hard to get the rebounds, and we’re going to get the ball to him. Effort like that is contagious and I think our guys bought into that.”
Neve added nine points followed by Plumlee with seven, Barrios and junior forward Colby Kitchen each scored four and junior forward Vance Levert contributed one.
Lampasas senior center Beau Patterson dropped in 17 points followed by senior guard Peyton Sisson with 13, and senior guard Aidan Nuckles added nine.
Marble Falls junior forward Cooper Gray drew the defensive assignment to guard Patterson, who stands 7 feet tall.
“Cooper was all over the place defensively for us,” John Berkman said. “He made some huge plays in transition, banging around with a guy who feels like he’s twice his size. We had some great plays from Colby Kitchen. When he came in, he gave us a little lift there right at the beginning of the second quarter into the third and beginning of the fourth.”
Marble Falls welcomes Georgetown Gateway Tuesday, Feb. 3, with the subvarsities playings at 5 p.m. and the varsity at 6:30 p.m.
CAPTIONS: Marble falls junior forward Colby Kitchen gave the Mustangs “a little lift,” according to his head coach. Photo by Christopher A. Miles/Christopher A. Miles Photography
