Marble Falls girls basketball faces Lampasas for district’s third seed

CAPTION: Marble Falls senior center Lexie Edwards and the Lady Mustangs are entering this contest against Lampasas looking to get back to where they were in first round of District 24-4A play. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Marble Falls High School girls basketball team will meet Lampasas for the third time this season to decide which squad enters the Class 4A playoffs as District 24-4A’s No. 3 seed.

The seeding contest is at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9, at Georgetown High School. Both teams have 3-5 district records and officially finish tied for third in the standings.

The winner will face Waco Connally, the second place team out of District 23-4A. The loser takes on defending Class 4A state champion Waco La Vega. Times, sites and dates for those games will be announced at the conclusion of the Lampasas and Marble Falls contest.

Lady Mustangs head coach John Berkman said he and Lampasas head coach Chris Jost couldn’t find a location for the seeding game that was any closer.

“We tried,” he said. “The boys (basketball teams) are still playing district games. A lot of places that were conveniently closer, from Burnet to Llano Liberty Hill to (Georgetown) East View to Cedar Park to (Leander) Rouse, all were unavailable.”

Lampasas and Marble Falls split the regular season series. The Lady Badgers won 41-38 Jan. 30 at Max Copeland Gym, while the Lady Mustangs prevailed 38-20 in Lampasas Jan. 12.

The Lady Badgers lost to Jarrell 60-57 Feb. 6 in the final district game. Had Lampasas won, it would have finished third in the district outright and avoided a seeding game. The Lady Badgers’ two other wins in district play came against Lago Vista 46-35 and 57-29

Marble Falls practiced Feb. 7 and will enter the contest after having a bye Feb. 6. The Lady Mustangs are looking to end a four-game losing streak. Marble Falls had the opportunity to sweep the season series against Lago Vista Feb. 2 to win third place in the district outright. Instead, the Lady Vikings prevailed 35-28 for their only district win this season.

Berkman said practices have a heavy emphasis on shooting, especially on free throws where Marble Falls is averaging about 27 percent in the last two losses.

“Some of it is Xs and Ox and refining what we do,” he said. “We’ve been shooting a lot of free throws. We want to show them they can do it to build that confidence. You can put them in the right position but at some point, they have to do it. So much of the game is mental.”

The Lady Mustangs are looking to regain what they showed during the first round of district play where they won three consecutive games and were second in district all by themselves.

“In the first round we were really confident in how we played,” the coach said.” In the second round, we lost some of that. We’re continuing to practice and push that. Sometimes confidence has to come from themselves. It comes from doing it right and doing it well.”

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