Marble Falls girls basketball loses to Salado

CAPTION: Salado packed the pain and didn’t allow the Lady Mustangs, including senior forward Kylie Roberts (left) and junior guard Lila Pangborn, to get comfortable. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Marble Falls High School girls basketball team lost to Salado 74-40 Jan. 28 in District 24-4A play.

The Lady Mustangs trailed 20-9 after the first period, 37-20 at the half, and 60-30 after three quarters.

“That’s a good team,” head coach Adley Canales said. “They didn’t have very many turnovers. They’re long and athletic. We turned the ball over too much to be successful. We forced passes instead of being patient and getting it where we wanted. We showed it in spurts.” 

Marble Falls’ guards and forwards are driving to the basket in half-court offensive sets in an effort to get more scoring from other Lady Mustangs and to open the lane for the posts.

“That’s something we’ve been working on, not just specifically for them, but for everybody in general,” Canales said. “(We want) our girls on the floor to be a threat. We want to play 5 on 5, not just 5 on 1 or 5 on 3 or 5 on 4. I thought they did a good job of getting to the goal, getting to the foul line. I want them taking shots when they have the right shot.” 

As a result, the Lady Mustangs were 16 for 26 from the foul line.

Canales said the players are getting to the right spots in attacking the gaps in defensive zones or backside shots, but they may be a second too late, which can mean a turnover. And they’re getting wide-open shots but are still looking for shooting consistency.

“Which is promising moving forward because we’re so young,” he said. “It’s difficult now to swallow because nobody wants to lose, nobody practices to lose. It hurts coaches; you want them to see the benefits of everything.” 

Senior forward Kylie Roberts led with 9 points followed by freshman wing Mikaela Valdez with 8, junior guard Rayleigh Crim and freshman forward Adalynn Wood each scored 6, senior guard Kenadie Cotton added 5, junior center Leslie Reynoso scored 4, and senior guard Caity Johnson finished with 2.

“I think Mikaela did a great job today,” the coach said. “And instead of passing it out, she was going up for a shot and taking a foul and knocking down free throws. She had 8 points and she was 5 for 6 from the free throw line. Which shows a lot of maturity. Earlier in the year, we had a tendency to look to pass versus looking to finish. That’s the stuff I’m talking about, where they’re making tremendous strides and gains.”

Few opponents this season out-rebounded the Lady Mustangs. But Salado did it for the second time this year.

“That’s the one game we lost the rebounding battle,” the coach said. “It doesn’t happen very often, but they’re a team that can do it to us. And that hurts when we can’t limit their shots.”

The Lady Eagles scored eighteen 2-pointers and eight 3-pointers and connected on 14 of 18 free throws.

Salado was paced by Karlee Konarik, who dropped in 27 points. Junior forward Riley Guthrie added 18 points, and senior forward Ally Ihler finished with 16.

Several Marble Falls underclassmen have played a ton of minutes against opponents who have been in high school weight-and-conditioning programs for twice as long as they have. Canales sees similarities between this year’s underclassmen and the class of 2023 that won the district crown two years ago.

As freshmen, those players won a total of five games.

“That year we didn’t make the playoffs,” Canales said. “And it was beneficial because they didn’t miss again as sophomores, juniors and seniors. This year we’re kind of in the same boat. We knew we were young and taking everything on the chin. So that’s the silver lining that all this says. There’s only one way to get the experience — by playing the games — and they’ve shown tremendous growth throughout the year. For them, it may not be as quick as they want, but it is tremendous growth. And they’re doing a lot of things right.” 

Marble Falls visits Taylor Friday, Jan. 31, with the junior varsity playing at 5 p.m., the varsity at 6:30 p.m. and the freshmen at 8 p.m.

CAPTION: Marble Falls freshman wing Mikaela Valdez is fearless in driving to the basket to draw fouls. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro