Faith Academy girls basketball beats Leander Founders

CAPTION: Faith Academy sophomore guard Cuyleigh Zimmerman was a big finisher for the Lady Flames in helping them win another road game. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Faith Academy of Marble Falls girls basketball team defeated Leander Founders Classical Academy 51-40 Dec. 4 to extend their winning steak to three.

The Lady Flames (5-4) and the Archers played to a 10-10 tie in the first quarter. Faith led 25-21 at the intermission and 33-28 going into the final stanza.

With 4 minutes and 30 seconds left in the contest and Faith clinging to a four-point lead, head coach Harvey Vaughn gathered with his players during a timeout to “kind of focus their minds.”

One important part of any game is players understanding the difference between playing time and winning time, he said.

“The time to win is the last three or four minutes in a close game,” he said. “You can’t afford to make the same mistakes you made in the first, second or third quarters when there’s only three or four minutes to go in a game. This is it right here, this is what we’re trying to figure out. Now we have to go manage the game, we have to get good shots. We have to not try to make that extra hard pass, because right now we need to possess the ball more than we need to take quick shots and being more patient when they brought the ball down, taking their time, understanding that if we have a four-to-six-point lead and there’s a minute to go in the game, we don’t need an open 3-pointer.”

Vaughn noted the Lady Flames didn’t shoot many free throws in the closing minutes. Rather, they spread out on the floor and drew defenders away for high-percentage shots that were either wide open or allowed a Lady Flame to go one-on-one to the basket.

“In the last four minutes, they really turned it on and closed it out,” the coach said. “It was a tight game at the end, and I think that they’re finally starting to understand the game of basketball and not that we’re coming out here to play and see what happens versus managing and understanding how to play the game. There are periods you have to manage the game, and there’s more to it than just going out on the floor and getting after it. I think this was a game that they are really starting to see the benefits of their work. They were cool under pressure at the end, and they won the game. In the last two games we won, we just went out and were better than them. In this game, we had to compete, and we had to be focused in the last three minutes of the game and actually execute to win the game, and I think they’re starting to figure that out.”

Senior post Natalie Weems led with 15 points, 18 rebounds, four steals and an assist. Sophomore guard Cuyleigh Zimmerman added 13 points, a rebound, two assists and a steal, while sophomore guard Olivia Kraenzel scored nine points, grabbed five rebounds, had three steals, two blocks and an assist, junior post Megan Burrows scored eight points had two rebounds and a steal, junior guard Lilly Koziel contributed five points, five rebounds, three assists, three steals, and two blocks, and sophomore Layla Terrell added a point, five rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block.  

While Weems continues to lead the Lady Flames in double-doubles, Zimmerman’s emergence as a scoring threat is momentous because of how she is scoring – by finishing fast breaks thanks to outracing everyone on the court.

“She made five buckets and a 3-pointer,” Vaughn said. “We’ve been trying to convince her to use her speed. As soon as we get a rebound or a turnover, she needs to light out. As soon as we get that turnover, she’d get out wide and go quick, and we were getting the ball to her, and she was taking it to the hoop. She’s the quickest for sure out on the break. She will catch it and maintain that speed to the bucket. She’s very coachable and wants to be good.”

Faith won’t return to the court until Dec. 12 for the first day of its two-day tournament. They’ll practice for the next several days.

“We’re going to mix it up a little bit,” the coach said. “We’re going to do some basics over this period, a lot of drills to handle pressure, pivoting in being able to move the ball up down sideways, and just various things that we can work on to put physical pressure on them and get them used to dealing with that. And then we have to work on our press.”