Marble Falls boys basketball beats Austin Achieve

CAPTION: Marble Falls junior forward Marc Barrios is scoring the buckets to give the Mustangs chances at wins. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Marble Falls High School boys basketball team defeated Austin Achieve 61-40 and lost to Liberty Hill Legacy Ranch 46-47, Mexia 58-44, and Lake Belton 39-31 at the Waco Robinson Rocket Invitational Dec. 11-13.

While the Mustangs (4-10) didn’t win more games, head coach John Berkman noted they performed better in rematch against Lake Belton. The Broncos beat them 67-44 Nov. 18.

“We held them and slowed them down a little bit, but they’re really good,” he said.

He noted the Mustangs put it all together against Achieve where they scored the most points in a single game all season.

“That’s a good sign for us for sure,” he said. “We played really good defense on Achieve. That’s where our identity is right now is on defense. We’re still struggling a little bit to figure out our offensive end, but scoring 61 on the last day of the tournament felt good. We were able to put the ball in the basket a little bit better and score some points.”

Junior guard Beckett Berkman has been consistently solid in scoring and junior forward Marc Barrios has shown an ability to be the team’s second leading scorer.

“Marc Barrios has played really well,” the coach said. “This weekend, he had several games where he was in double digits. That was a good sign. We need more guys to step up and to score more consistently, even if they’re not the second leading scorer. We need guys to add to those points. Some of that comes from just making shots, from making better decisions to take better shots.” 

The Mustangs have been scoring consistently in the high 30s for most of the season. Because of their commitment to being solid on the defensive end, they have opportunities to put themselves in position for wins.

“We would like to be in a better spot than where we are right now, of course,” the coach said. “Offensively, sometimes it just takes a little longer and you have to figure it out. Right now we’re just trying to figure that out and when we can get to that point, it’s really going to be good because you already have the defensive side figured out. I feel like once we put the offense with it, we’ll be a pretty dangerous team to deal with.” 

Marble Falls will get two more chances this week when they welcome Austin Travis Tuesday, Dec. 16, at 7:30 p.m. and then travel to play Austin Eastside at 6:45 p.m. Friday, Dec. 19.

“We have a chance with two games to really rectify that a little bit and get better,” Berkman said. “It’ll be good for us to go into the Christmas break playing well. We’re thankful that our defense is playing well, because we know we need that – we have to have our defense playing well so that we can have a chance. But our offense has to improve. We can keep the other team from scoring tons and tons of buckets, but at the end of the day, we have to be able to score more than what we’re doing in order for us to win more.” 

He believes the decisive win against Achieve gives the Mustangs confidence in what they can do.

“We’re getting better,” the coach said. “We were able to score more. We scored in the 40s in two out of the four games and one in the 60s. So we were above 40 in three of the four games this weekend, and the game that we were only at the 30s, we were within eight points because our defense kept us competitive.”