Burnet girls basketball beats Marble Falls in district opener
CAPTION: Burnet senior forward MaeSyn Gay drives to the hoop for 2 points during the Lady Dawgs’ win against Marble Falls Jan. 5. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography
The Burnet High School girls basketball team defeated Marble Falls 43-23 Jan. 5 in the District 24-4A opener for both teams.
The Lady Dawgs (20-7, 1-0) took an 11-4 lead after the first period and dropped in 21 points in the second stanza for a 32-11 advantage and cruised to the win.
That illustrates his players’ mindset, Burnet head coach Rick Gates said.
“I’m really proud of the team,” he said. “I couldn’t ask the team to be more locked in.”
Marble Falls scoring 23 points in 32 minutes says plenty, too.
“We got after them,” Gates said. “Based on our full-court press, we made it hard for them to get in their half-court offense. We wanted to deny (Marble Falls senior center Lexie Edwards) and keep the ball out of her hands.”
Gates said he was pleased with the halftime score, especially the amount of points his team scored in the second quarter. The challenge now, he said, is for the Lady Dawgs to continue to build on that momentum.
“The only thing we talked about during (the Jan. 6) practice was to make sure we came out of the locker room in the third quarter and do a better job,” he said. “Moving forward, that’ll be something we focus on. We want to keep our offensive intensity up and keep the overall intensity up.”
Marble Falls outscored Burnet 12-11 in the second half. Marble Falls head coach John Berkman noted part of his half-time message was to cut down on the turnovers in the second half, which the Lady Mustangs did.
“Our girls can play with Burnet,” he said. “There was a little bit of doubt when we let ourselves get down by 20. (My players) are good enough to play with a team favored to win district. We can’t get ourselves in a big hole. Our goal is to keep a team under 40 points. We gave up 43. Not bad considering we gave up 32 in the first half. Every coach wants their team that, once you get a team down, you want to apply pressure. It’s another feather in our cap that they weren’t able to do that.”
All but one Lady Dawg scored. Senior forward MaeSyn Gay scored 11 points followed by junior forward Sierra Schaefer with 9, senior center Zaria Solis added 8, junior guard Sydney Lough and sophomore forward Wrigley Mulhollan scored 4 apiece, senior guard Journey Denton dropped in 3, and junior forward Aubrey Mathews and junior center Cydney Roberson each scored 2.
Edwards led with 14 points followed by Marble Falls junior forward Kylie Roberts with 8, and sophomore center Leslie Reynosa had 1. Berkman noted the posts continue to find ways to score points, especially the team’s lone senior.
“I think it says a lot about (Edwards) to stay within herself and let things come to her,” he said. “She stayed within herself and put herself in position to be helpful to her team. Everybody has scouted everybody. It’s no secret the ball is going to our posts. They’re able to score says a lot about them.”
Gates noted winning the district opener is big for the Lady Dawgs. It puts the team atop of the standings and allows them to continue to control what happens to them during the district race as they remain in pursuit of the district title.
In addition, Burnet has two more consecutive district home games. The Lady Dawgs welcome district foe Lampasas Tuesday, Jan. 9, with the subvarsities playing at 5 p.m. and the varsity taking the court at 6:15 p.m. and Jarrell Tuesday, Jan. 16.
“I feel like we definitely have to win the home games,” Gates said. “I’m looking forward to playing well and seeing what certain teams look like in person and hoping to continue taking them one game at a time. We came in (Jan. 6) and had a good shootaround, practiced and watched film. And the talk has been all basketball. The girls know a lot of the girls playing against them. They love the game of basketball, and they’re focused on the task at hand.”
Meanwhile, Marble Falls looks to bounce back against Jarrell, which visits Max Copeland Gym, Tuesday, Jan. 9, with the sub varsities playing at 5 p.m. and the varsity taking the court at 6:30 p.m.
“Last year we lost the first game of district, and we were district champs,” Berkman said. “One game doesn’t define a season. We have to learn from that game. We have everything in front of us with seven district games left. We’re still playing for a district championship.”
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