Marble Falls boys basketball hosts Burnet

The Marble Falls High School boys basketball team welcomes the Burnet Bulldogs for the District 24-A opener Friday, Jan. 2. The subvarsities play at 11 a.m. and the varsity at 12:30 p.m.

Burnet features a couple of athletes, seniors Jaxon Sparks and Eli Pickens, who played significant minutes a year ago and have simply gotten better. Other seniors include Braven Briant, Parker Wenger and j.J. Whigham.

The Bulldogs use their athleticism to get high-percentage shots and defensive stops. New head coach Juston Weldon has given the players the green light to shoot more and be creative in their offensive sets.

“I think they want to shoot it, shoot the ball from outside a lot more than they did last year,” Mustangs head coach John Berkman said. “They want to shoot from the outside, so we’ll have to be there to defend and take care of business in that way. And looks like they want to press, so they can push the tempo some. I think we’ve handled the press well this year and being able to break the press and those kinds of things. We’ve been pressed by a few teams. I think it’ll be a good matchup for us. I’m confident that our guys are going to be able to handle what’s thrown at them, whether it’s the speed of the game or just need to be gritty and be great rebounders and play good defense.” 

The Bulldogs competed in the Hangry Joe’s Hays Hawks Christmas Classic where they beat Austin Travis 63-60 and Austin Northeast 64-42. Losses were to Austin Hyde Park 57-55 and to Graham 53-46.

Meanwhile, the Mustangs are entering the contest with momentum after returning from the Christmas holiday.

The Mustangs stomped Liberty Hill Legacy Ranch 45-30 Dec. 30 at Max Copeland Gym on their high school campus and Uvale 48-43 Dec. 29 at the Frost Bank Center, home of the San Antonio Spurs.

Against Uvale, the Mustangs led by as many as 20 points, which allowed Berkman to substitute freely.

“We started playing some different lineups to make sure everybody got to play and get in the game on that big court,” Berkman said. “I thought that was important. Uvalde ramped up the pressure on us a little bit, and then they started making some shots in the fourth quarter. Overall really proud of all of our guys and the effort they gave playing there and getting that win for sure.” 

He applauded the defensive effort of junior forward Cooper Gray and the offensive work of Colby Kitchen. He also noted junior guard Beckett Berkman played well.

“Cooper played a really good defensive game,” the coach said. “I also thought Colby had one of his best games of the season. He came in and did some things, just rebounding wise and being active around the goal, finding the ball and being able to score some.”

The win against Legacy Ranch was a rematch of a 56-47 loss to the Wranglers in early December.

“We didn’t play very well in that game, and we gave away a lot of things in that game,” Berkman said. “In the rematch with them, we were ready and we played really well from start to finish.”

The two teams played to a 9-9 tie at the end of the first quarter and the Mustangs led 17-14 at halftime. Marble Falls started the second half on a 7-0 run that forced Legacy Ranch into a timeout with 4 minutes and 45 seconds remaining in the third period.

By the end, Marble Falls led 29-21 going into the final stanza.

The Mustangs started the fourth with a 9-0 run to build a 38-21 advantage with 5:24 left that essentially ended the contest.

“We felt like we were in control of the game the whole time, offensively and defensively,” Berkman said. “They wanted to be really physical, the officials allowed it to be a physical game, and I was really proud of our guys for handling themselves appropriately but also handling the pressure and the physicality of the game and being able to make shots.”  

The victories extend their winning steak to four.

“(The win against Uvalde) kept our momentum going from when before the break and gave us our fourth win in a row,” he said. “And two, it’s always good to come back and be able to play well when you come back from a break and on a big stage where we played in San Antonio at the Frost Bank Center. That was lots of fun and a great experience for our kids. Everybody had a lot of fun getting to play on a professional court and on top of it, we get the win, which is just a lot of fun for our program. It was big game for our kids to get to do that.”