Every possession is key.
San Marcos (17-6, 1-3 district) returned to the Snake Pit for the first time in three weeks. The defending 6A State Champions, the Converse Judson Lady Rockets (19-8, 3-1) were waiting for them.
The hosts were held scoreless from beyond the arc all night, which gave Judson the advantage from outside, but it was Lady Rockets junior guard Kierra Sanderlin who closed the game with the final five points, attacking the rim and scoring in a variety of ways in order to secure the 43-38 win over the Lady Rattlers.
“I will say that I thought that we could’ve done a better job as far some of the possessions that we had and we have to when you’re talking about the team that won state last year,” head coach Veronda Kendall said. “You have to value every possession and we want to be able to attack the basket and not necessarily always settle for jumpers.”
It was a quick game of hot-potato when both teams turned the ball over on its initial possessions of the game. Once the teams started to settle down the game started to clean up. Judson’s work on the glass gave them multiple shot opportunities around the rim, allowing them to make a living at the free throw line. Junior guard Kayla Presley initiated the offense by passing to junior forward Faith Phillips who found Presley on a backdoor cut and score. Phillips found her rhythm on the glass with a putback of her own, which gave the purple and white their first lead of the game, 9-8. With nine seconds left Presley wouldn’t be denied as she took it through the visitors’ press and ended the quarter with a tenacious finish.
The Lady Rattler’s defense intensified as senior forward Grace Latham sent a shot into the stands but the visitors found the microwave as they started to heat up from range. Judson hadn’t hit a shot from the outside until the 1:36 mark of the first half, which then sparked a chain-reaction of jump shots as the visitors hit 3-4 from beyond the paint en route to a 10-2 run to close out half and give them a 22-17 lead.
Each team traded scores until senior guard Miranda Lamb found a way to get to the basket on multiple occasions. The guard connected on a shot falling to the ground and kept her team in it with her energy while the scoring margin looked identical at the end of three.
But Sanderlin made her presence felt the whole game.
The junior guard continued pouring in buckets. This time it was an old-fashioned and-one that increased the point spread to seven with 6:52 left. San Marcos’ spark plug all season, sophomore guard Angelina Sotelo, continued to prove her value off of the bench with points that put an incision in the Lady Rockets lead. The battle in the Snake Pit continued with a block from Phillips that led a mid-range jumper by Latham, leaving the score at 39-38 with the advantage favoring Judson. The purple and white failed to score in the final two minutes of the game, allowing the visitors to close out the win on the road.
Kendall felt like this was a winnable game but her team didn’t take advantage of the opportunities that Judson gave them throughout the night.
“This is a tough district. I just think we have to be a little tougher on the offensive side of the ball and I’d like to see our energy on defense pick up a lot more,” Kendall said. “I just don’t think there was a lot that separated the two teams tonight. It was one or two possessions here and there.”
The Lady Rattlers will try to fix the minor flaws they see in their game when they battle another tough district opponent in Cibolo Steele on the road this Friday at 7 p.m. Steele (16-8, 3-1) is currently ranked No. 6 in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches poll.
