Marble Falls girls basketball’s Rodriguez scores 1,000th career point, helps team to top of district standings
CAPTION: Marble Falls senior guard Tea Rodriguez (middle holding the purple ball) celebrates scoring 1,000 points in a career with her teammates after the Lady Mustangs won their fourth District 24-4A game. Courtesy photo
The Marble Falls High School girls basketball team defeated Lago Vista 53-33 Jan. 17 to move to first place of the District 24-4A standings after completing the first round.
During the contest, senior guard Tea Rodriguez scored her 1,000th career point and led the team with a total of 16. She entered the game with 998 career points.
“She hit a 3-pointer early in the game in the first quarter,” head coach John Berkman said. “We called a timeout to celebrate it as a team. We asked for the game ball to give to her. (Lago Vista head coach Tanner Kudrna) was gracious and allowed her to have the game ball. There’s a respect in the basketball community. Everybody wants to recognize that. That puts you in an elite group. From coach to coach, you want to congratulate that coach. You don’t get to coach that often. We called the timeout and we’re right back to business as usual. It was a special night.”
Marble Falls (16-12) has won four in row and is on a bye Friday, Jan. 20.
“As a program we always want to take everyone seriously,” Berkman said. “Winning programs have to have that mentality and have the mentality to play your best every game. We see it all the time in sports. Anybody can beat anybody on any given night if you’re not prepared.”
The Lady Mustangs certainly did that in outscoring the Lady Vikings (9-17, 0-3) in every period. Marble Falls led 12-6 after the first quarter, 24-13 at the half, and 43-27 headed into the final period.
“A big piece of the puzzle was we stayed after it,” the coach said. “(Senior forward) Emma Koziel played well offensively for us. She made some great passes to players running the floor. When we get going in our transition, it makes it hard for other teams to keep up. They got some things on us in the first half. They ran out of steam, and we kept transitioning. No matter who we put in the game, we were running. Teams get demoralized and break down cause they’re tired.”
Rodriguez is the fourth Lady Mustang who played for Berkman to score 1,000 points. The others include Aubrey Adams, Mya Berkman and Rylie Ulbricht, who were all part of teams that reached the Class 5A Region IV tournament. After the contest, the 2022-23 team celebrated Rodriguez’s accomplishment by displaying homemade posters and give her small presents.
“I try not to focus on those things, but they happen for individual players,” the coach said. “We want the players to be who they are, and it’s pretty great because of who they are. We want them to win the game, first and foremost.”
The team will recognize Rodriguez before the next home, which is against Jarrell at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 27. Before that, the Lady Mustangs will travel north to face Burnet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24, at The Doghouse to begin the second round of district play.
Because Lago Vista doesn’t have a freshman squad, the Marble Falls team traveled to play Sterling Classical where the Lady Mustangs won 27-25 after falling behind 21-8 in the first half.
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