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SMHS GIRLS BASKETBALL
In the Lady Rattlers district opener, San Marcos clinched a key win, beating the New Braunfels Canyon Cougarettes 6152.
San Marcos and Head Coach Cooper Haralson improved their record to 14-5 overall despite their issues on defense.
“Our girls always play hard,” Harralson said. “There’s no question about that, but we just weren’t very consistent with our communication defensively on switches, ball screen coverages, and just communicating everything that we see.
We gave a lot of shooters opportunities to be open,and weren’t really able to get very good contest shots because of it.
“Give [Canyon] credit. They knocked them down. They hit a lot of big shots that kept them in the game. They played hard.” Despite San Marcos jumping out to a 10-3 lead in the first quarter, Canyon made their comeback and cut the Lady Rattler lead down to 14-13.
The Cougarettes tied the game before the second quarter with the score at 16-16.
But a strong second quarter performance from San Marcos allowed the Lady Rattlers to retake the lead and enter halftime up 35-24.
It was a lesson the Lady Rattlers learned in their district opener that the road to the playoffs and a potential district championship will not be given but earned.
“We just have to know that every single night, when you get in the district, everybody’s fighting for those spots to get in the playoffs, you’ve got to be ready for everybody’s best shot,” Haralson said. “They came out and hit us in the mouth a little bit early. At the end of the first quarter it was 16-16 and 16 points is way too much to give up for us.
“We don’t typically do that. But again, it was those breakdowns and communication. Great defense leads to easy offense, and we didn’t get a lot of the easy offense. We gave up too many boards and everything like that, not getting a body on a body. That’s what allowed them to have that big quarter.”
Despite the Lady Rattlers leading at 45-35, Canyon again made an attempt to retake the lead and made it a four point game with San Marcos entering the fourth quarter up 46-42.
However, San Marcos responded by going on a 10-2 run to start the period and expanded their lead to 58-44.
The Cougarettes were unable to overcome the run, allowing San Marcos to collect their first district win of the season at 61-52.
Senior point guard Ezra Tobias and junior shooting forward Azariah Fennell led the team in scoring with 14 points apiece. Junior power forward Melayna Perkins was third in scoring with 12 points followed by senior shooting guard Ayleceia Pierson with 11.
Fennell and Perkins led the team in rebounds with seven apiece followed by Tobias and Pierson with six each.
Despite the ugly win, Haralson was still proud of the Lady Rattlers for finding a way to win and start district play at 1-0.
“At the end of the day, as ugly as it was, I’m still proud of our girls,” Haralson said. “We just have to regroup, make sure we watch the film, and prepare for Johnson. We have to do a better job of executing next time around.”
The Lady Rattlers will be back home Tuesday against Buda Johnson. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
cmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc
