Marble Falls boys basketball beats Jarrell
CAPTION: Marble Falls junior forward Cooper Gray was the catalyst in helping the Mustangs build an early advantage that led to the win against Jarrell. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School boys basketball team defeated Jarrell 42-36 Jan. 23 in District 24-4A play.
The Mustangs got the start they wanted when junior forward Cooper Gray knocked down a 3-pointers 31 seconds into the game then increased the lead when Gray found junior guard Beckett Berkman on a backdoor cut for a 5-0 advantage.
Marble Falls broke a 5-5 tied on a 3-pointer by junior forward Vance Levert thanks to an assist from junior point guard Cypress Neve to start a 10-0 run.
The Mustangs showed tremendous team basketball when senior center Kaleb Bielfeldt stole the ball and passed to Berkman who found senior center Cameron Plumlee for the easy bucket.
By the end of the period, Marble Falls led 19-13 and never trailed. And by limiting the Cougars to 36 points, the Mustangs met their goal of not allowing opponents to score more than 50 points in a game.
“That was a good thing for us to come out hot like that to begin with,” head coach John Berkman said. “We get 19 points in the first quarter, and that’s a great feeling for sure. We’re still heavily reliant on our defense, which is big because defense goes a long way. It travels and sometimes the offense doesn’t. When our offense is struggling, we can always rely on our defensive effort and really proud of our guys to give that kind of effort the whole game.”
One big key was how much the Mustangs moved without the ball in an effort to get open and get away from defenders, Berkman said.
“I thought that we did a much better job of moving the ball and getting the ball to the guys that needed to get it,” he said. “We just did a good job of making it tough on their defense.”
Gray exemplified moving without the ball and making the most of his opportunities.
“Cooper Gray got hot for us early in the game, and they kept getting him shots in open positions, which I thought was good,” Berkman said. “Cooper does a great job of moving without the ball and putting himself in position to score. Sometimes we don’t always find him but yeah, I think a lot of that is attributed to his movement without the ball for sure. He has done a great job with that, and our guys just did a really good job of finding him throughout the game.”
Gray finished with 12 points, four rebounds, four deflections and two steals.
“He did the same thing at Taylor (a 43-27 win Jan. 20), picking up the pace there, making some big shots for us to get our momentum going that was big-time for us,” the coach said. “And that was good.”
He complimented Levert and junior forward Marc Barrios for his tenacity in getting to the basketball. He had eight rebounds, four steals and five deflections to go with his six points.
“(Barrios) did some good things for us in trying not to force it,” the coach said. “Vance had a couple of big plays for us. He hit another three, which this is his second game in a row to hit a three. We’ve really been trying to push him a little bit to be ready to score from that standpoint.”
After taking a bye Jan. 27, the Mustangs welcome Lampasas Friday, Jan. 30, with the junior varsity playing at 5 p.m., the freshmen at 6:30 p.m. and the varsity at 8 p.m.
The Badgers (22-1, 6-0) are in first place in the district standings.
CAPTION: Junior power forward Vance Levert gave the Mustangs the start they wanted against Jarrell. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
