Marble Falls girls basketball beats Taylor
CAPTION: Marble Falls senior center Leslie Reynoso. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School girls basketball team blew out Taylor 42-18 in the Lady Mustangs’ final regular season home appearance.
The District 24-4A win ensured seniors Rayleigh Crim and Leslie Reynoso exited Max Copeland Gym as victors. Before tipoff, the duo and their families were honored for their contributions as mult-year lettermetn. Both started with Reynoso scoring 9 and Crim finishing with 2 points, however, their contributions were more on the defensive end. Crim refused to allow Taylor easy entry to the paint for high-percentage shots, while Reynoso made sure the Lady Ducks earned every basket in the lane.
“This is a good game,” head coach Adley Canales said. “It’s very nice to be able to reward your seniors. Defensively, we did our jobs.”
Indeed. Taylor scored 4, 0, 6 and 8 points in each of the four periods. Meanwhile the Lady Mustangs led from start to finish thanks to dropping in 10 points in the opening stanza and six in the second quarter.
But a more determined and physical Marble Falls team returned to the floor for the start of the third period and created the separation that put the game out of reach.
And the Lady Mustangs did it by taking the ball to the Lady Ducks as they constantly rebounded misses and scored on either putbacks or free throws. By the end they outscored the Lady Ducks 18-6 to build a commanding 34-10 lead going into the fourth period.
No one was more offensive than sophomore forward Addy Wood, who finished with 14 points thanks to hitting four 2-pointers and six free throws. Freshman forward Emma Martin was equally productive by scoring 13 points on four 2-pointers and five foul shots. Sophomore guards Ally Moran and Mikaela Valdez each added 2.
While Canales was pleased with how the Lady Mustangs clamped down defensively, he believes his players are capable of doing much more on the offensive end.
“If there’s a point that we can improve, it would be our offense,” he said. “We had a really, really good third quarter. But the other three weren’t up to our (offensive) standards, but those things we can fix, which is good.”
The Lady Mustangs left too many points on the floor – too many missed lay-ups and high-percentage jumpers. Canales liked the shot selection. Now it’s about finishing.
“We were just looking out of control,” he said. “We were hoping the officials would bail us out versus just going to make the bucket. We talked about it, put an emphasis on it, just focused on making buckets. We scored 18 in the third, and that comes from us just being under control, making the buckets and forcing the officials to make a call and not hoping they bail us out.”
Still, the coach emphasized, the Lady Mustangs honored their two seniors in the best way – with a win. And Crim and Reynoso have done plenty to help Marble Falls return to the playoffs, something the program missed last season.
“Both of them have done a great job with their leadership,” he said. “Out of all the people in the program right now, they’re the only two who have seen the floor in any playoff games the last time we made the playoffs just two years ago. They know what it takes to get there and having them be able to lead the girls and make sure we’re being focused the whole time – it’s huge.”
Canales said the two talk to their younger teammates in the locker room and on the court offering insight and advice, which has been invaluable.
“They’ve made sure to be the coaches on the floor,” he said. “They make sure we’re not doing this if they’re slacking in practice or in games. It’d be very easy to just say we’ve secured our (postseason) spot and then we come out flat in games. The great thing for us is we have two really good seniors who do not allow the girls to take steps back, which is great from a coach’s standpoint. We want to peak in the playoffs. We don’t want our high point of the year to be in district.”
If the current standings hold after the regular season ends Tuesday, Feb. 10, Marble Falls will face Gatesville for a bi-district championship in the Class 4A Division I playoffs with date, site and time still to be determined. The postseason begins Monday, Feb. 19.
But first the Lady Mustangs must finish the regular season with a road game at Jarrell Tuesday, Feb. 10, with the junior varsity playing at 5 p.m. and the varsity to follow. It’s a doubleheader with the boys.
CAPTION: Marble Falls senior guard Rayleigh Crim. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
