Faith Academy boys basketball goes 2-0 at own tourney

CAPTION: Faith Academy freshman guard Will Slyker’s (12) scoring ensured the Flames had a great start to their tournament. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Faith Academy of Marble Falls boys basketball team cruised to a 2-0 record at their own tournament on the opening day of the event Dec. 15.

The Flames crushed the South Austin Warriors 76-37 and San Marcos Home School 65-47.

“It was a really good day of Faith Academy basketball,” head coach Zakk Revelle said. “We’re getting better and better as a team as we’re about to enter the Christmas break.”

The Flames led the Warriors 23-13 after the first period, 55-19 at the half, and 70-25 after three quarters of play.

Faith led San Marcos Home School 15-7 after the opening stanza, 37-15 at the break, and 55-34 after the third period.

Faith was led in scoring by freshman Will Slyker, who scored 37 points against the Warriors and 43 points against San Marcos Home School.

“He’s shooting it and playing well,” Revelle said. “I think he would tell you his teammates got him going. They continued to get him the ball. If he’s not going to miss, we’re working harder to get the ball to him than to anyone else.”

The coach noted the Flames saw Slyker had the hothand and encouraged him to keep shooting.

“They were OK with every single shot he was taking,” he said. “He would tell you it had more to do with his teammates than himself. He would tell you that.”

Going into the second half against the Warriors, coaches challenged the Flames to “get a (defensive) stop, score and get a (defensive) stop,” Revelle said. While that’s an ongoing stat the staff looks at, the coach said they stopped keeping track sometime in the second half.

“We had four or five in row to start the second half,” he said. “That helps us win on the road, in district games.”

Because the Flames had built such a big gap against the opponents, Revelle was able to substitute freely. Before the start of the fourth period, Faith had a line-up of athletes who haven’t played together during a game. The line-up included Micah Anderson, Seattle Hampton, Colten Kohutek and Barrett Schmidt.

“(Schmidt) knows he’ll play limited minutes,” Revelle said. “It’s a really cool deal when you get those guys in the game.”

The starters cheered louder than the crowd when their teammates scored and displayed their disappointment when their shots didn’t fall through the net. Revelle said that he told the starters the plan was to rotate them out after the third quarter to allow their teammates to get minutes.

“You play and you want to be successful,” Revelle said. “But you want to be successful for each other as much as you want to be successful for yourself. Let’s get the others in the game. They did that. It’s a neat thing. It shows they’re learning what the whole ‘love each other’ (the team motto) is all about.”

Faith faces Austin Veritas at noon Saturday, Dec. 16, and will play again later that day at either 6 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. depending on the outcome against Veritas. All contests are at The Fire Pit on the Faith campus.

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