Faith Academy girls basketball continues improving

CAPTION: Faith Academy of Marble Falls players Cuyleigh Zimmerman (left), Layla Terrell and Lilly Koziel are underclassmen who are learning by facing opponents featuring athletes with more experience. Contributed photos by Stennis Shotts

The Faith Academy of Marble Falls girls basketball team showed growth and improvement from where the Lady Flames began the season to where they are now.

The scoreboard may not reflect it, but head coach Harvey Vaughn said that this progress is what will give the Lady Flames an opportunity to reach other goals this season.

Most of their opponents feature players who are upperclassmen, while Faith’s starters have been underclassmen for a good part of November. Since mid November, the basketball program welcomed some volleyball players once that season finished. Now it’s a matter of gelling them into one unit.

And they’ve been thrown onto the basketball court where they are learning as they are playing. The opponents, who also need to work on their own challenges, have been playing full-court presses that has limited Faith’s offense.

“It’s good for us to play that,” Vaughn said. “We’ve been under a lot of pressure all season. They started to understand how to break a press. I feel good about where we’re at.”

At the Johnson City tournament, Vaughn could see all the elements come together as the Lady Flames handled the defensive pressure and scored.

“We played unbelievably well,” he said. “Everything came together.”

He pointed out his team was in position to challenge for leads in losses to Colorado 52-50 and to Eustace 34-26. Faith had a half-time lead against Eustace by holding the Lady Bulldogs to nine points in the half.

Two of Faith’s top players fouled out with 4 minutes left. One was the primary ball handler.

“We couldn’t run our offense,” Vaughn said. “They had some good guards and shooters.”

With 40 seconds remaining in the game, Colorado was fouled near the basket and scored both free throws to take the 52-50 lead. Seven seconds remained when Vaughn called a timeout and drew up a play.

He saw his athletes pass the ball and move without it as they executed what he drew. In the end, they had two shot attempts that didn’t fall.

Junior post Natalie Weems scored 31 points and grabbed 22 rebounds. She is averaging about 15 rebounds a contest.

“She is starting to get the hang of playing in the low post,” the coach said. “She is doing better. The girls are finding her. They have to pass the ball and move. We have to be moving. The girls can’t stand there. That’s been the problem.”

Now that Faith sees how close it is to being the team it wants, Vaughn believes better things are coming.

“We were down, but we came all the way back,” Vaughn said. “If we execute and do what we’re supposed to do, we can win. It was a good tournament. I felt like we made a lot of progress.”

The Lady Flames host their own tournament Thursday-Saturday, Dec. 9-11.

“I’m hoping to see us be able to execute at a much higher level,” Vaughn said. “This will give us a good idea about our district and where we are right now.”

CAPTION: Faith Academy of Marble Falls freshman Jasmine Young doesn’t allow a defender to sway her from shooting. Photo by Stennis Shotts