Faith Academy girls basketball season ends
CAPTION: Sophomore forward Layla Terrell contributed on both ends with a couple of breakout games. Photo by Stennis Shotts
The Faith Academy of Marble Falls girls basketball team lost to Temple Central Texas Christian 52-30 Feb. 6 in District 4-3A of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools.
The loss means the Lady Flames (17-12, 5-5) finish the season in fourth place, one place short of advancing to the playoffs.
The first quarter ended with a 5-4 score. But the one element that the Lady Lions were counting on played out.
“It was just an extremely physical game on their part, not necessarily as much on our part,” Faith head coach Harvey Vaughn said. “The refs were letting things be physical, and we did not respond. And after a while, they just got the momentum on us. We couldn’t stop them on either side of the floor. Honestly, we got outplayed. And we got outcoached. They pretty much dominated the game physically on both sides.”
Vaughn said CTC changed its approach from what it had been doing defensively. The Lady Lions had played a 2-3 basic zone the majority of the season. But against Faith, the Lady Lions went to “a very tight, physical man-to-man defense.”
“Our girls didn’t respond to that,” he said. “We tried to change a few things offensively, but just a physicalness and the pressure, the grabbing and pulling and the stuff that you do when you’re trying to win the playoff spot, they did it. And we didn’t. That’s not just on the players, that’s on the coaches as well. We have to have our girls prepared for that. And obviously we did not do a good enough job, meaning me as the head coach.”
CTC, which featured nine seniors, used its defensive pressure to produce on the offensive end. While the Lady Flames handled that well in the first quarter, the Lady Lions turned the game in their favor in the second period.
“The physicalness got us out of our mental game, I think a little bit, and then we just kind of lost our focus,” Vaughn said. “I think, again, that’s part of being young players and going against seniors. I was all over the refs the whole game, but they just beat us from top to bottom. No excuses.”
The end of the season doesn’t take away the accomplishments. Vaughn pointed out the 17 wins assured the Lady Flames a winning record, the program’s first in several years. Faith will say good-bye two seniors Alyana Reyes and Natalie Weems.
“There is a core group that wants to win, and I feel like they’re going to be willing to put in the time and the effort over the spring and summer to get better at what we need to get better at and come back and do it again next year and be better than we were,” the coach said. “We’ve done nothing but improve since I’ve gotten here and like, I told the girls, this was not the result we wanted, obviously, but this class (of 2028) has turned the tide of Lady Flames basketball in a positive direction. We have to keep going up.”
CAPTION: Sophomore guard Selby Sanchez is part of the core class of Lady Flames who are turning the program “in a positive direction,” according to head coach Harvey Vaughn. Photo by Stennis Shotts
