Marble Falls boys basketball beats Burnet to keep playoff hopes alive

CAPTION: Marble Falls senior guard Kody Smith and the Mustangs earn the win at Burnet and still have a shot at the postseason. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography

The Marble Falls High School boys basketball team defeated Burnet 53-49 Feb. 9 for an invaluable win in District 24-4A.

“You know the respect I have for (Burnet head coach Roy) Kiser and the Bulldog program,” Mustangs head coach Travis Crain said. “I have a deep respect for him and how they do things.”

Burnet (21-11, 8-1 District 24-4A champions) led 11-5 after the first period.

The Mustangs anticipated some of the ways the Bulldogs would test them during the contest, Crain said.

“We thought they’d take (junior point guard) Tidus (Willie) out of it,” he said. “We were more prepared this time. We wanted to learn from our previous experiences.”

Still, Marble Falls hit an offensive cold spell in the second quarter and trailed 31-14 at the half. So Crain’s message during the intermission was one of reassurance.

“We really thought our offense was working,” he said. “We told them to finish, finish through contact and timing. We had time to finish the shot. It was like we were too open. We were getting good looks. Settle down and finish them. Set your feet. Go through the contact and finish at the rim.”

The Mustangs got the message and the one player they needed to get going — senior guard Kody Smith — paved the way.

He knocked down three consecutive 3-pointers from the left wing that fired up the Marble Falls faithful and gave the Mustangs something they hadn’t had a lot of lately – hope.

“He earned it by doing the right things,” Crain said. “He stayed after school to work. He was being coachable. I would be happy for anybody in that situation. I know what he’s doing behind the scenes. I’m so proud of him.”

In turn, other things started to open up and the Mustangs showed they weren’t quite done yet: junior forward Garen Jones and Willie each added a bucket, and senior athlete Jaime Castillo scored a basket and made a couple of free throws. Smith connected on a fourth 3-pointer and Marble Falls still trailed 39-36 going into the final stanza.

“We’re still down three at the end of the third quarter,” Crain said. “But we outscored them 22-6. We felt like we had momentum and chipped away. Even though we’re down, we’re rolling.”

But the Bulldogs showed why they are the this season’s district champions. They maintained the lead until the final 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

“It was back and fourth in the quarter,” Crain said. “But in the second half, we took the lead and never gave it back.”

With the game tied 46-46, Jones scored on a lay-up for the 48-46 advantage with 2:00 remaining.

Burnet looked to immediately regain the lead, but the 3-pointer was missed. A fight for the rebound ensued and the ball went out of bounds. Officials said it was last touched by the Bulldogs with 1:52 left.

Crain instructed his players to get into their stall offense.

“We spread them out,” he said. “We really take our time and go five out.”

All the sudden a lane opened up for Jones, who read it and went to the basket. But the Bulldogs cut off the opening. Jones does “a back dump” to senior center Cooper Cochran, who scores on the wide-open look for a 50-46 lead with under 90 seconds remaining.

Crain said he told his players during the next timeout they must commit to continuing to play.

“I reset everybody and said, ‘This ain’t over,'” he recalled saying. “They’re going to keep fighting.”

Sure enough, the Bulldogs came out of the timeout and executed a pick-and-roll that was scored by senior point guard Andre Miller to cut the deficit to 50-49 with 1:10 left.

“He hit a big-time 3-pointer,” Crain said. “We were prepared, so we’re not freaking out. We spread them out again and create space until we got a good look.”

This time, senior forward Davis Dreisbach got to the lane and didn’t hesitate as he connected on the bucket to give the Mustangs a 52-49 lead with 40 seconds left.

Burnet inbounded the ball but lost it in traffic, giving it back to Marble Falls, and Crain called a timeout “to settle us.”

As soon as the Mustangs inbounded the ball to Willie, he was fouled. But it was only Burnet’s third foul of the period. They had to foul Willie two more times to send Marble Falls to the free throw line with 20 seconds left. After missing the first attempt, Marble Falls called a timeout. Crain said it was designed to let his players rest and to help them stay mentally sharp.

“We talked about what defense we wanted,” he said.

Willie hit the second attempt, and the Mustangs decided to defend every part of the court they could in an effort to make valuable seconds run off.

Miller came down and passed to senior guard Reese Syphrett. Jones raced to Syphrett and did enough to force him to step back to get the attempt off.

“Garen does a great jot of contesting the shot,” Crain said.

The ball is inbounded to Willie, and “we’re off to the races,” the coach said.

The shot rims in and out and the possession goes to Burnet with two tenths of a second left.

Crain said his instructions were clear.

“Don’t get near anybody,” he recalled telling his players as they allowed Burnet to inbound the ball and attempt a shot from one free throw line to the opposite basket.

Smith scored 20 of his game-high 23 points in the second half with 14 coming in the third quarter. Jones added 12, while Willie contributed 8, Davis and Castillo each added 4, and Cochran finished with 2 “that were big.”

While the loss does little to hurt the Bulldogs, the win “does have big implications” for the Mustangs, Crain said.

Currently one game remains in the regular season, which will be played Tuesday, Feb. 13. Burnet welcomes Lampasas (5-4), while Georgetown Gateway (4-5) faces Lago Vista and Marble Falls hosts Jarrell (6-3).

Burnet and Jarrell have already clinched playoff berths with Jarrell entering the Class 4A playoffs as the district’s runner-up.

But if Marble Falls and Gateway win and Lampasas loses, there would be a three-way tie for the final two playoff spots. In past years in that scenario, when the University Interscholastic League gave a total of three playoff spots to each district, a coin flip would be used. The two teams that lost the coin flip would play each other one night for the right to face the winner of coin flip the next night.

That’s what happened to the Marble Falls and Burnet softball teams in 2006 when Comal Canyon was in District 27-4A with them. Canyon won the flip and faced the Lady Mustangs the night after Marble Falls eliminated the Lady Dawgs.

Crain indicated the Mustangs are reluctant to allow a coin flip to determine whether their season continues. But he emphasized that’s getting ahead of things. The first order of business is to build on the win at Burnet and be prepared to play a motivated Jarrell team that lost to the Mustangs on a half-court shot in Max Copeland Gym last year.

In short, Marble Falls is preparing for Jarrell’s best, and the Mustangs are preparing to play their best, too, the coach said.

“We have a chance, and that’s all you want,” he said. “We’re alive, and our guys were over the moon. They felt like (the win at The Doghouse) was one of the first times things worked out. We’re grateful. Burnet is always a difficult place to play. We’re excited for our game Tuesday.”

The subvarsities play at 5 p.m. and the varsity at 6:15 p.m.

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