Marble Falls, Burnet boys basketball to battle for playoffs

CAPTION: A key part of the rematch against Burnet is how the Mustangs, including senior Greg Lemon (back left) and junior Beckett Berkman, will defend Burnet senior guard Jaxon Sparks. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

If the Marble Falls High School boys basketball team wants a chance to advance to the Class 4A playoffs, the Mustangs must do something they haven’t done in District 24-4A play yet – win three games in a row.

By the same token, if the Burnet Bulldogs want to advance to the playoffs, they’re going to have to return to the form that resulted in back-to-back wins to start district play in early January.

Both teams are vying for the same prize — a playoff berth — and understand that in order to get it, one squad must beat its Burnet County rival in a rematch at The Doghouse at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 13. The subvarsities play at 5 p.m.

The reason is because the Mustangs (10-18, 4-6) stomped Jarrell 61-29 and Burnet (17-13, 4-5) lost to Lampasas (25-8, 9-1) 77-48 both on Feb. 10.

The Bulldogs are a game ahead of the Mustangs for fourth in the district standings thanks to winning 43-38 Jan. 2 at Max Copeland Gym to begin district play.

Burnet senior sharp shooter J.J. Whigham led the way with 18 points thanks to making six 3-pointers with two coming in the third period and two others in the fourth quarter. All 12 of Burnet’s third period points were on 3-pointers.

To illustrate just how deadly the Bulldogs were from the arc, consider this. Burnet made more 3-pointers (9) than 2-pointers (4) and foul shots (8 for 13).

A Mustangs’ victory means the two split the regular season series and results in Marble Falls having a 5-6 record with a road game at Salado (25-6, 9-1) Tuesday, Feb. 17, to end the regular season.

Meanwhile the Bulldogs’ record would go to 4-7 with a road trip to Jarrell (6-19, 0-9) to end the regular season Tuesday, Feb. 17.

But a Burnet win means the Bulldogs have swept the season series against Marble Falls and assures them of a playoff berth.

“To achieve the goal of going to the postseason that game is almost a requirement to win,” Burlldogs assistant coach Carter Carruthers said. “So it’s not even just necessarily a thing of of trying to gain momentum. So trying to get our kids to understand that without overemphasizing it and putting added pressure on them is a hard thing to do. But we’re going to have to and hopefully our kids will be up for the challenge.”

Marble Falls head coach John Berkman wasn’t looking past the Bulldogs.

“It’s as big of a game for them as it is for us,” he said. “They’re fighting for their lives, just like we are. And as far as the playoffs go, you put yourself in a tight spot. We need to win just to get a tie and they need to win so they don’t have to be in a tie or possibly be out of the playoffs at some point and depending on how the last game goes. So both teams should be locked and loaded and ready to go for sure.”

Berkman chuckled when it was suggested that District 24-4A officials didn’t like the Mustangs because they must hit the road for the second game in a row.

“That’s just how the schedule rolled out,” he said. “We wish that it was a little more mixed up, especially at the end. Last year we had three straight home games to finish the season and somebody would have said that the district loved us. So that’s the way it goes. We’ve played everybody at home already and now we’re playing them on the road, and so you have to play the games that are put in front of you and hopefully our stretch at the beginning of the year, when we played a bunch of games on the road to start the season, will pay off here at the end of the season where we’re not bothered by playing on the road, where we are able to play well even in somebody else’s gym. That’s our goal to finish the year out.”

CAPTION: Marble Falls junior forward Cooper Gray is showing more consistency in scoring, which helps the Mustangs in many ways. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro