There’s a first for everything.
Some of the kids on San Marcos’ team have gone all three years of their careers without touching a trophy. The spell cast shattered the curse this past weekend in the Cedar Creek Classic when they fought to make it to the championship and took home the second-place trophy after losing to an undefeated Belton (7-0), 77-68. Although it was a tough pill for the team to swallow after the loss, the Rattlers settled for taking home the runner-up plaque to be displayed in the school.
The first two games of the tournament were decided by five points or less, resulting in a 54-49 win over Round Rock Westwood and a 64-61 win in nail-biting fashion to Pflugerville Weiss.
“You wanna have close games so you know what kind of team you got,” head coach Steven Pinchback said. “Can they handle it? When we played Cedar Creek in the previous tournament, we had the lead with about a minute left in the game and we didn’t execute, we turned the ball over, they won, we gave the game away. So you wanna see them learn and grow. The next game that we played, it was close and they did the right thing, so they learned. It’s all about learning.”
Day two of the tournament mirrored Thursday’s performance with San Marcos going 2-0, snatching up its largest victory of the year 81-18 over Eastside Memorial and beating Elgin Baylor, extending their win streak to five — their longest since the 2016-17 season.
It was tough losing in the championship game for Pinchback and company as they fell to a very good Belton team.. Even with the loss, the team found positives to take from this weekend.
“It was good, especially for some of the older guys to taste some success that we really haven’t seen before,” senior guard Josh DeLeon said. “And also for the younger guys to get some experience that will benefit them later.”
Freshman forward Malik Presley was voted to the All-Tournament team for the first time. His youth shined bright when he found out he had received the award.
“To be honest, I didn’t know what it was when I first got it because it was my first time said,” Presley said. “When my mom told me what it was, I thought it was nice but honestly, I gotta keep my head right, keep working and stay humble.”
San Marcos (8-4) has been on the road for a little less than a month, but will finally get a chance to play in front of their home crowd again this Friday at 7 p.m. against San Antonio Alamo Heights. Pinchback wants the student body’s help to support the team this time around and expect an exciting game every time his team touches the floor.
“We really need the fans and the student section to come out when we have the home games,” Pinchback said. “We invite them to come in and yell for these kids because these kids are going to give you everything and their pretty fun to watch.”
