Marble Falls girls basketball falls to Lago Vista

CAPTION: Marble Falls junior forward Bethany Fry helps shoulder the load near the basket with 7 points and 7 rebounds during the loss to Lago Vista. Photo by Jennifer Fierro/TexasChalkTalk.com

The Marble Falls High School girls basketball team lost to Lago Vista 35-28 Feb. 2 to end District 24-4A play.

The Lady Mustangs (3-5) take a bye Tuesday, Feb. 6, while the rest of the district has one game left. Currently, they are in fourth place behind Lampasas (3-4). But the Lady Badgers must play Jarrell (5-2), which beat Burnet (6-1) 58-54 in overtime Feb. 2. Burnet finishes the regular season by facing Lago Vista (1-6).

If Jarrell wins, Lampasas and Marble Falls will have identical 3-5 records and play for the right to enter the Class 3A playoffs as the third seed to avoid facing Class 4A defending state champion Waco La Vega in the first round of the playoffs. The fourth seed faces La Vega.

As for the loss to the Lady Vikings, the contest didn’t begin that way.

Marble Falls led 8-6 after the first quarter and trailed 15-13 at the intermission.

“We gave up a silly bucket late,” Marble Falls head coach John Berkman said the one-score half-time score.

But Marble Falls regained the lead 25-20 going into the final quarter.

During the final eight minutes, junior guard Kenadie Cotton connected on a huge shot to trim the deficit to two. Lago Vista made free throws to seal the win.

Berkman said three key statistics that explain the score are rebounds, turnovers and free throws.

Marble Falls was 7 of 25 from the foul line against Lago Vista.

“It’s hard to win when you don’t make free throws,” he said. “You make the game a lot better when you make free throws. Rebounds, turnovers and free throws – those are the areas you have to win.”

Senior center Lexie Edwards has 12 points and 6 rebounds, while junior forward Bethany Fry had 7 points and 7 rebounds, and junior forward Kylie Roberts had 5 rebounds.

“We need all of our players to do their parts,” Berkman said. “We didn’t get all the parts.”

The Lady Mustangs finished the first round of district play at 3-1 with a three-game winning streak, including winning at Lampasas. But in the second round, it’s flipped. They haven’t won since beating Lago Vista 45-33 Jan. 16. Berkman said the three main statistics outside of the score point back to one fact.

“Some of that are the signs of a young team and being tired,” he said. “This is a young team not being focused. A young team forgets that we have to give our best every single game. In the first round, we were.”

While Marble Falls didn’t get the outcome it wanted Feb. 2, Berkman said he saw some traits that continue.

“Our girls didn’t quit,” he said. “They play as hard as they can for as long as they can. Sometimes it doesn’t equal the result. We could have laid down and quit. I’m really proud of the fact we stuck with it. We want to maximize our players; what do we have and how do we get the most out of them. There’s still some games left. We’re in the playoffs. It’s a matter of time.”

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