The Lady Rattlers knocked off the No. 13 San Antonio McCollum Cowgirls in Class 5A to both keep their undefeated home record and their winning streak to nine games.
San Marcos and Head Coach Cooper Haralson improved their overall record to 17-5 and their home record to 7-0 while snapping McCollum’s 14-game winning streak.
“Coming off the break, having to stay out of the gym for five days for basically a week … I had a feeling that there may be a little sluggishness here and there,” Haralson said. ”I thought we did a good job of breaking out of that, you know, catching our wind for the most part.”
The first quarter was slow for both teams who were still adjusting after the long break and playing at an earlier time than usual.
Going into the second quarter, San Marcos trailed McCollum 10-8.
“I think there's some uncharacteristic things we did,” Haralson said. “We turned over the ball a little bit too much. We didn't always do a great job of getting a body on the body and allowing some offensive boards that we just don't normally allow. Like I said, we've been out of the gym for a week so maybe a little bit as expected, but we just have to get better and learn from that. “But at the end of the day, the girls played hard. They played together and they took care of business.”
The Lady Rattler offense found their offensive groove in the second quarter, riding the hot hand of junior shooting Azariah Fennell.
Fennell scored 15 points in the period, allowing San Marcos to refocus and take the lead back from McCollum. Going into halftime, the Lady Rattlers led 29-21.
“After the first quarter where I couldn't buy a basket, I knew that I had to dig down deep and just play and not be in my head,” Fennell said. “[Just] understand that my team needed me to be in that moment, even though I wasn't making shots. I knew that I could, so definitely that's what was going through my mind to push me through was thinking about my teammates and my team.”
The Lady Rattlers opened up the third quarter on a 10-5 run to extend their lead 39-26 as San Antonio failed to cut their deficit down to double digits.
For junior power forward Melayna Perkins, San Marcos’ ability to start out the third quarter on the right foot has been the key to their success.
“The third quarter is our important quarter,” Perkins said. “Every quarter is important, but I feel like our game in the third quarter really matters. How you start after the half is how the rest of the game's basically gonna go. If we could come out in the third quarter, starting fast, strong, communicating and getting on a long run, it really changes us.
“It builds so much energy on our bench, and how the third quarter goes is how our fourth quarter is gonna go, and if we keep our lead and run, then it makes the ball game easier.”
San Marcos strong third quarter performance gave the Lady Rattlers 47-35 lead going into the fourth quarter before winning the game 62-48.
Fennell had a game high 25 points followed by senior point guard Ezra Tobias with 11. Perkins was third in scoring with nine points.
San Marcos returns to play Friday at home against the East Central Hornets in district action. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
