Marble Falls boys basketball beats Travis
CAPTION: Marble Falls sophomore power forward Marc Barrios (0) and senior forward Reed Lewis continue getting extended minutes thanks to their great play. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School boys basketball team defeated Austin Travis 59-32 Dec. 17.
The Mustangs now turn their attention to Burnet in the District 24-4A opener at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 20, at The Doghouse.
Against Travis, the Mustangs broke the game open in the second period.
Head coach John Berkman said his athletes continued a trend they began in a 56-40 blowout of Sweeny Dec. 15 to end their HTeaO Classic.
“We got a bounce back win against Sweeny that was big for our mental state,” he said. “We felt we were better than what we showed in our tournament at times.”
Determined to keep the trend going, the Mustangs took a no-prisoners attitude with them to Austin. The coach summed up what he saw in five words.
“Our guys were locked in.”
Indeed.
Marble Falls played the kind of defense Berkman wants to see – all out with constant ball pressure at every pass, no matter if it was in the full court or half court. He pointed out the Mustangs got steals off deflections and passes and controlled the defensive glass. So when they grabbed a rebound, it was a quick outlet and outsprinting Travis to the other end for layups.
Once that started happening, the rest took care of itself.
“We were able to get deflections early on,” he said. “Offense was slow getting started. We missed some shots in the first quarter. We outscored them 22-7 in the second quarter. When you score easy buckets on the inside, outside shots start falling.”
Marble Falls led 11-5 after the opening stanza and 33-12 at the half.
Though the Mustangs led by 21 at the intermission, Berkman challenged his players to do one of the hardest tasks in all of sports — finish.
“We go to zero-zero at the intermission,” he said. “We want to keep the intensity up.”
A drop in intensity tends to lead to sloppy play and empty possessions. But Berkman was happy to say he didn’t witness that. He believes it’s another example of athletes who are showing their mental and physical toughness by going on the road and competing well in someone else’s gym.
“You want to leave no doubt — there’s no doubt in the second half,” the coach said. “We stretched that lead on them and made it a little bigger. Everyone got to play, and we were able to get guys in the game.”
