Marble Falls girls hoops begins own tourney with win
CAPTION: Marble Falls senior guard Tea Rodriguez and the Lady Mustangs won their opening game of their own Hill Country Classic Nov. 17 Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School girls baskeball team defeated Lockhart 65-31 Nov. 17 in its first game of its Hill Country Classic.
The Lady Mustangs (3-0) will play Hutto on the Max Copeland Gym court at 6 p.m. Nov. 17.
Marble Falls began the game on a 13-0 run thanks in large part to a tenacious defense led by senior guard Alyssa Berkman, who had numerous steals at the top of the defense.
That led to transition baskets as the Lady Mustangs quickly got into an offensive rhythm. In short, each player gave amximum effort that was contagious, even when head coach John Berkman subbed.
And while the posts and forwards didn’t give up easy buckets, the guards simply wouldn’t allow clear passing or driving lanes either.
“Our guards are definitely a big key to what we want to do defensively,” coach Berkman said, “That’s what we preach — if we can play well defensively, everything else comes easily.”
Marble Falls led 15-4 after the first period, 36-10 at the half and 52-21 after three quarters.
The coach noted the Marble Falls defense isn’t nessarily designed for the guards to get batted balls to start fastbreak baskets, though few are complaining about that.
Instead, it’s to force the opponent to make bad passes and allow another player to step into the passing lane for steals.
And the Lady Mustangs did all of that without putting Lockhart in the bonus for free throws in either half.
“We pride ourselves in trying to play without fouling,” coach Berkman said. “Our girls do a good job of that.”
As for the offense, every Lady Mustang scored led by junior post Lexie Edwards who dropped in 12 points. Senior post Emma Bindseil had 10, senior guard Tea Rodriguez scored 7, and sophomore post Bethany Fry and Alyssa Berkman each had 6.
“I thought we ran the ball well in transition,” the coach said. “I think we were successful in getting what we wanted, the shots we wanted. We really want it to be a team effort. We have a lot who can score and do a lot for us.”
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