Faith Academy boys basketball begins playoffs
CAPTION: Faith Academy senior center Judah Phillips is a dominant presence in the paint and aims to continue that trend in the postseason. Photo by Stennis Shotts
The Faith Academy of Marble Falls boys basketball team welcomes San Antonio Lutheran at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 17, to begin the Class 3A playoffs of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools.
The Flames (District 4-3A runners-up) already beat Lutheran twice in district play: 71-41 Feb. 3 and 78-44 Jan. 15.
“You’re seeing teams multiple times,” head coach Zakk Revelle said. “You can’t just assume everything is going to work out the same way the next time. We have to make sure we’re handling our business and doing our jobs. You’re seeing a team for the third time. Honestly in my career, we’ve never done that.”
Faith will enter the playoffs after beating Temple Central Texas Christian Schools 62-47 Feb. 10 and losing to Waco Live Oak 57-49 Feb. 6 in district play.
“As a coaching staff, we felt like the game against CTCS was in some ways bigger than the game against Live Oak,” Revelle said. “You don’t want to go on a two-game losing streak into the playoffs. If you defeat Live Oak, you want to finish it the right way and tie for a district championship, because we could have technically lost that (CTCS) game, and then you’d be sitting at 10-2 either way and Live Oak would be set at 11-1. So it was a really big game to us, regardless, on just how we were going to respond. I think that just in sports in general, there’s something to be said about how you respond and how you can handle winning and how you handle losing. Both times we played CTCS, it was after we lost to Live Oak and I felt like we responded both times really well. The win didn’t gain us a good seed or anything like that. But it did give us good confidence.”
He noted CTCS featured six seniors who led the Lions to an 8-4 district record. The Flames understood the Lions have all that experience playing at home in their final regular season game, so they prepared for get CTCS’ best.
Revelle said the Flames used the game against CTCS “to work on some things,” including defensive strategies and moving different Flames around.
“If you want to win games in February, you have to get stops,” he said. “That’s been a point of emphasis the last few days in practice. I think our guys have bought into that and have done a good job of that.”
The Flames will take all of that into the contest against Lutheran, which finished district play in fourth place and is an opponent the scores say Faith handled fairly easily. The key, Revelle said, is how his players step on the floor where every team understands they are in a one-and-done part of their season.
“We really want them to be prepared going into the playoffs,” he said. “Because we know that we’re seeing Lutheran for a third time and again, understanding it’s not going to look the same. And so we have to make sure we’re handling our business and doing our jobs. We look forward to hosting the Mustangs again.”
The winner of the Faith-Lutheran contest will meet Huntsville Alpha Omega Academy, the District 5-3A champion.
CAPTION: Senior guard Jase Marshall is a calming presence on the floor for the Flames as he helps set the defensive tone and turns steals into quick buckets. Photo by Stennis Shotts
