Faith Academy boys basketball earns big tourney wins
CAPTION: Faith Academy freshman guard Will Slyker (12) and sophomore center Judah Phillips (34) are two underclassmen who are contributing on both ends of the floor for the Flames. Photo by Jennifer Fierr/TexasChalkTalk.com
The Faith Academy of Marble Falls boys basketball team ended the Lorena Tournament with a solid 49-37 victory against Rapaport Dec. 2.
The Flames also beat China Spring 59-53 Nov. 30 and lost to Whitney 67-60 and San Antonio Alamo Heights 76-31, both on Dec. 1, and Jarrell 60-40 Nov. 30.
“We were really excited about beating China Spring,” Faith head coach Zakk Revelle said, noting the Cougars were a Class 4A playoff team a year ago. “My guys played really hard all weekend. In the end, you look around and everyone was becoming closer with everyone. It was a really good tournament.”
He noted the event had a mix of public and private high schools representing various classifications. Revelle said his team didn’t reveal much that surprised him. All the Flames did was confirm traits about themselves he suspected they already had.
“We have a bunch of guys who are willing to play hard,” he said. “We’re really young. At the beginning of the year, I thought there were games we should win, games we shouldn’t and some that we we had a chance. I don’t think we lost the ones we weren’t supposed to.”
He noted that Whitney had a 17-point lead and that the Flames began chipping away. At one point they trailed by two points. Jarrell, which made the Class 4A playoffs a year ago, had experience that was hard to overcome.
“Our youth showed,” Revelle said. “We need games like those for our younger guys to get that experience. You win games maybe you shouldn’t. They got to experience the myriad of emotions. We are who we think we are.”
That’s a good young team that is taking advantage of improving each contest, he said.
The primary ball handlers, some of which are on the varsity for the first time or are handling the ball more, are still adjusting to the speed and the physicality that comes from aggressive defenses looking to set traps and force bad passes. Revelle said coaches sometimes scratch their heads when they see players break a full-court press easily in one possession and struggle to do so a second time on the next.
The coach also pointed out that illness has limited the number of Flames available to play. So some athletes are logging more minutes because they must.
When the Flames do set up their half-court offense, they are relying on sophomore center Judah Phillips, who stands 6 feet and 10 inches.
“That’s a blessing,” Revelle said. “But everyone wants to be the guy to block his shot.”
That means defenders are going right at the Phillips and few whistles are being blown, even when there are obvious fouls against the Flame, Revelle said.
“He’s getting fouled pretty good,” he said.
But Revelle is far from discouraged. He sees the traits of a team that’s hungry to improve and wants to do well.
Faith travels to play at Austin Regents at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 5. Regents is expected to have a full roster, including its football athletes who played for a state title Dec. 2. They lost to Liberty Christian 52-10.
“We’re constantly trying to put them in situations where we have to play well so when we get to district, we’re playing our best basketball.”
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