Marble Falls girls basketball readies for road trip to Rouse
CAPTION: Marble Falls sophomore guard Lila Pangborn uses a screen set by senior center Lexie Edwards to make her way to the basket. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School girls basketball team will travel to face Leander Rouse Monday, Nov. 20, in its final game before enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday.
The Lady Mustangs (1-6) are coming off the heels of finishing 0-4 at its own Hill Country Classic Nov. 16-18.
Marble Falls lost to Humble Atascocita 42-18 Nov. 18, Salado 48-39 and Academy 48-42, both on Nov. 17.
“Atascocita is athletic, and we ran out of bodies,” head coach John Berkman said. “(Senior center Lexie Edwards) got beat up pretty good. I feel like we got better in this tournament. I saw moments of getting better. We’re getting better every day, and we’ll be successful. That’s our goal.”
Berkman said the biggest area of improvement is the Lady Mustangs’ patience on offense and their rotation in the half-court sets was better.
Opponents are figuring out that if they can take Edwards away on the offensive end — by double and triple-teaming her — they can contain the Marble Falls offense. But Edwards, who is tall and takes up space in the lane, uses her body to post up and is unafraid to draw contact as she strives to take shots, no matter how many defenders are committed to stopping her, Berkman said.
“I saw a lot of toughness from Lexie,” he said.
He noted much of the same from junior post Kylie Roberts, who was aggressive in making ball handlers uncomfortable on the defensive end and doesn’t mind going after 50-50 balls.
“Kylie has a motor that doesn’t stop,” Berkman said. “We got lots of production from them.”
He still wants to see more of an attacking effort defensively.
“Our younger players are still learning to play our defense at a high level,” the coach said. “Defense makes the offense go. If you don’t play defense, you’re not on the floor. A lot of players are out there because of their defense. Offense takes nights off. You can make up a lot by playing good defense.”
Though the record doesn’t reflect it, Berkman said he believes the tournament helped his players improve.
“We didn’t do well to start the games, but we did well at this tournament,” he said. “There were a couple of games we felt like we should have won. If we continue to play as well as we did here, we could win those games. We’re not trying to match what past teams have done. We’re trying to take what we can. Every team is different. We look at success in different ways.”
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