Marble Falls boys basketball loses to Salado
CAPTION: Marble Falls senior forwards Reed Lewis (2) and Garen Jones cut Salado freshman Griffin Self’s path to the basket. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School boys basketball team lost to Salado 52-27 Feb. 11 to end the regular season.
Now the Mustangs (16-13, 6-6 District 24-4A fourth) turn their attention to Waco La Vega in a bi-district championship of the Class 4A Division I playoffs. That game will be played at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18, at Copperas Cove High School.
The Eagles (13-19, 4-8 District 24-4A fifth place) led 9-4 after the first period, 16-8 at the half and 35-18 after three periods.
“Another night where we just could not get the buckets to fall,” Mustangs head coach John Berkman said. “We had lots of opportunities. Our guys ran everything how we drew it up and what we wanted to do and the shots we wanted to get. We literally just could not get the ball to go in the hole. But really proud of our guys who played hard all the way to the end. We made some plays at the end to get some steals, get extra opportunities. Just still couldn’t make it go our way.”
Every time the Mustangs looked to make a run with a couple of buckets in a row, the Eagles answered.
Marble Falls trimmed the deficit to 22-17 in the third quarter before Salado ended the period on a 12-1 run.
It marks the second time the Mustangs have had an off-shooting night. They had the same hurdle when hosting Burnet last week. The Bulldogs won 38-30.
“I don’t think any coach could ever pinpoint what causes a shooting slump or a baseball hitting slump,” Berkman said. “You can’t pin it on anything. Sometimes it’s in your head, it’s a psychological thing. You just get tired at the end of a season, sometimes something just feels wrong to the player. So therefore, they’re not comfortable and you just can’t pinpoint exactly what that is, and I think that’s where we’re at right now. Guys who know how to score, have scored their whole career, and have scored all season for us are missing shots.”
He noted it’s frustrating for the player, his teammates and his coaches, especially when the team executes the play correctly and the ball won’t find the back of the net. And it’s not just shots.
“Some nights just don’t go your way,” the coach said. “Whether it’s the bounce of the ball on some rebounds or some passes that got deflected, and we were doing everything right and it still didn’t go our way. Tonight’s a perfect example that we got every shot we wanted. We made some adjustments at halftime. We got everything we wanted out of that.”
Salado made eleven 2-pointers compared to Marble Falls’ 10. But the Eagles dropped in eight 3-pointers to Mustangs’ 1.
Salado freshman guard Liam Wilcox led all scorers with 17 points followed by freshman Griffin Self with 11.
Marble Falls senior forward Garen Jones led with 9 points followed by senior guard Tidus Willie with 6, sophomore guard Beckett Berkman added 5, sophomore forward Marc Barrios, junior center Cameron Plumlee and junior forward Kaleb Bielfeldt each scored 2, and senior forward Noah Lyon finished with 1.
The Mustangs will practice the rest of the week, including Monday, Feb. 17, thoughtMarble Falls Independent School District doesn’t have classes.
“We’ll treat it like a normal work week,” Berkman said. “We want to be in the same rhythm that we’ve been in all year. Keep it as normal as possible. The good news is it’s not our last game. Good news is we still got a playoff game in a week and so we can rest up and get ready for that and be good to go.”
