Marble Falls girls basketball falls short against Llano

CAPTION: Marble Falls junior post Leslie Reynoso and Llano junior post Peyton Parrish met again in a rematch Dec. 10. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

Five days after losing to Llano by 20 points, the Marble Falls High School girls basketball team welcomed the Lady Jackets to Max Copeland Gym for the rematch Dec. 10.

And though Llano continues to show why it will contend for the District 5-3A championship, the Lady Mustangs pushed the Lady Jackets for more than 32 minutes.

Llano won 46-44 in overtime thanks to a 3-pointer by junior guard Sydney Kuykendall, who had tied the contest at 38-38 by hitting a pair of free throws with 15 seconds left in regulation that sent the game into the extra session.

And while the outcome wasn’t what Marble Falls wanted, Llano head coach Jay Parker noted this opponent was different from the one he saw in his gym.

“They played hard,” he said.

His counterpart, Marble Falls head coach Adley Canales agreed.

“I thought we did everything we wanted to do,” he said. “We played extremely hard and extremely well. The biggest thing was just do what we do. No matter who we’re playing, we wanna play our game and dictate the pace and tempo. We did a great job with that tonight. We want to be aggressive, and we were in the press and even in the half court and in transition — in all 3 phases. You cannot fault the effort or anything we did.”

Llano features 6-foot, 1-inch Amelia Robinson, a matchup nightmare because she is at the point guard position, can pass well and can hit 3-pointers from any spot. Posts aren’t fast enough to guard her on the perimeter thanks to a quick first step and dribble. Guards aren’t tall enough to affect her court vision.

Even when Robinson isn’t on the offensive side of the floor, she’s never alone. Toward the end of the overtime, she rarely crossed midcourt and had a Lady Mustang defending her. That illustrated trusting her teammates to get the job done on that end.

Defensively, Robinson appears out of nowhere to swat shots near the paint away.

All of those elements were shown throughout the contest as the Lady Mustangs continued to attack the rim.

Llano led 13-10 after the first period. But Marble Falls refused to be shutout in the second stanza like it was last week though the Lady Mustangs trailed 22-13 at the intermission.

Marble Falls began the third period on a 6-0 run thanks to buckets from senior guard Caity Johnson, junior post Leslie Reynoso with an assist from senior forward Kylie Roberts, a putback by senior guard Lila Pangborn, and a steal and putback by senior guard Kenadie Cotton to trim the deficit to 22-21.

Llano junior guard Bailey Niemeyer was fouled on a drive to the basket and connected on both free throws to ensure her team kept the lead. But Roberts stole the ball and passed to Johnson, who got it to freshman Ally Moran on the fast break to tie the contest at 24-24.

But Kuykendall passed to Robinson for a 3-pointer and then finished a fastbreak with under a minute left to give Llano a 29-24 advantage headed into the fourth quarter.

Marble Falls freshman forward Adalynn Wood used a head fake to score from the low block to begin the scoring. Llano senior guard Ciara Hays set up Robinson for a jumper on a throw-in for a 31-26 advantage.

Each team was in a full-court defense and looked to create extra possessions, but the Lady Jackets maintained the lead until Moran hit a pair of free throws for a 32-31 advantage with 3:10 remaining in regulation.

From there each squad matched the other with deflections, steals and unforced errors.

Llano trailed 36-33 on a Cotton bucket from a Roberts steal and assist, but Robinson added a free throw and Kuykendall scored on a putback to tie the contest at 36-36.

Johnson scored on a putback with 22 seconds left to give Marble Falls a 38-36 lead that set up Kuykendall for the heroics toward the end of regulation.

With 2:11 left in overtime, Marble Falls had a 44-41 lead thanks to a Reynoso lay-up. But Robinson made both of her free throws with 64 seconds left to trim the deficit to 44-43 and led to Kuykendall’s 3-pointer.

The glaring stat for the Lady Mustangs was free throws. They were 11 for 31 for the contest.

“Why we didn’t win the game?” Canales said. “It was free throws.”

Other than that stat, there wasn’t much he could point to that wasn’t positive beginning with the tempo of the game.

“With our transition points, I think our numbers are high,” he said. “It gave us the opportunity to play in the halfcourt.”

Reynoso led Marble Falls with 11 points followed by Johnson and Cotton each with 7, Wood and Roberts each added 4, Valdez dropped in 3 and sophomore Kenley Virdell, Pangborn and Moran had 2 apiece, and junior guard Rayleigh Crim had 1.

Robinson led all scorers with 24 points, while Kuykendall dropped in 11, Hays scored 4, Neimeyer, junior guard Kenna Moore and junior Peyton Parrish each had 2, and sophomore forward Hailey Lucas contributed 1.

Canales pointed out that other than the first quarter, Llano scored in the single digits the rest of the game.

“We feel confident that if we can do that, we’ll win,” he said. “It allows us to come back. That’s where our focus is. We feel confident we’ll be in the game.”

Marble Falls is at the Waco Robinson tournament Thursday-Saturday, Dec. 12-13. The Lady Mustangs play Concordia Lutheran at 1:30 p.m. and West at 6 p.m., both on Thursday, Little Cypress-Mauriceville High at 4:30 p.m. Friday and Whitney at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.