Marble Falls girls basketball beats New Braunfels in strong second half
CAPTION: Marble Falls seniors Tea Rodriguez (left), Mackenzie Farmer, Emma Koziel, Avie Nail, Lilly Nesrsta, Emma Bindseil and Alyssa Berkman pose with Larry Berkman, their first recreation and select team coach, after beating New Braunfels Dec. 16. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School girls basketball team defeated New Braunfels 60-35 Dec. 16 behind a stingy defense that limited the Unicorns to 13 points in the second half.
The Lady Mustangs (11-6) led 28-22 at the break thanks to an 8-2 run in the final 2 minutes and 17 seconds of the second quarter led by senior guard Tea Rodriguez’s four points during the run. New Braunfels scored four 3-pointers in the first half to keep them in the contest.
That ended in the third period when Marble Falls didn’t allow New Braunfels to score more than four points. Meanwhile, the Lady Mustangs began the quarter on a 9-0 run by changing how they score. Typically, they like to shoot outside jumpers. New Braunfels, however, wouldn’t allow that to happen. So the Lady Mustangs drove to the lane and passed to posts who made the Unicorns pay by hitting high percentage shots.
New Braunfels didn’t score until 2:44 remained in the period and again with seven seconds remaining in the quarter. By then Marble Falls led 41-26 headed into the final stanza.
“Defense is who we are — that’s what we hang our hats on,” Marble Falls head coach John Berkman said. “I felt we did a great job rotating and getting after rebounds. That’s turning into offense for us.”
The Lady Mustangs continued their offensive assault and never allowed New Braunfels to get comfortable on either end of the floor that lead to Marble Falls outscoring the Unicorns 19-9 for the win.
“We talk a lot about that,” Berkman said. “We’re doing a much better job going to the inside. We have posts on the inside who can contribute. We’re showing that we can recognize that on our own. We’re driving and making plays. We’re driving with a purpose to create opportunities for others and making the right pass.”
Rodriguez led with 21 points followed by 8 from senior guard Alyssa Berkman and from junior center Lexie Edwards, and 7 from senior guard Mackenzie Farmer. The Lady Mustangs dropped in 17 of 22 free throws and scored 17 two-point buckets.
Before the contest, the team honored its seniors. After it began, each coach agreed to give an uncontested lay-up to each other, which was John Berkman’s idea. Senior forward Avie Nail suffered a season-ending injury, so she scored the first bucket of the contest.
“That’s a tough loss,” the coach said. “I wanted to honor her on senior night. Their coach was gracious enough to do that. I wanted her to start one last time and play on senior night. It’s a game I wanted our seniors to play in. It’s something I hope she remembers for a long time.”
Another Lady Mustang who scored was sophomore guard Kenadi Cotton, who moved up from the junior varsity. The gym erupted when her two-point shot fell in the basket.
“I wanted to give her an opportunity to have some minutes,” Berkman said. “Our team did a good job of rallying around her. Her scoring was icing on the cake.”
The Lady Mustangs welcome Stephenville at 1:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 19, then travel to Glen Rose to play at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 20, and will play in the Mansfield tournament Dec. 28-30.
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