Smithson Valley (16-8, 5-1 district) dominated the inside from the opening tip while defensively making it very difficult for San Marcos to find a rhythm scoring the ball in 74-58 loss for the Rattlers at home Tuesday.
The visitors jumped out to a 9-2 lead early in the first with freshman forward Malik Presley breaking the ice with an athletic finish at the rim. It would only get tougher as Smithson Valley continued to clog the paint, making driving lanes tight for the scorers. The sticky-glue defense forced a five-second call on freshman guard Kaden Gumbs at the 2:12 mark. The Rangers displayed versatility scoring, but the point production came from senior Austin Kenwisher, who scored nine of his 12 points in the first quarter, leaving them ahead 18-9.
“We gotta keep working it. Guys get caught up in the game and get to watching. You can’t watch the ball,” head coach Steven Pinchback said. “Find a body, go get the ball. It's gonna hurt but we just gotta get better. We’re still young, we still got some guys really learning how to play this game at a high level, so I can’t be too disappointed because I know the future’s gonna be bright. Yes, we want to win every game, yes we want to compete but you gotta take your lumps along the way. It’s called growing.”
Presley got back-to-back buckets to go with 5:30 left in the half, making it 22-15, but his points barely made up ground in the deficit. As Smithson Valley was scoring inside, senior Joey Hernandez got hot from deep. His 3s kept cutting into the lead. The Rangers foreshadowed what was to come in the second half, matching Prelsey’s scoring results at the rim twice before the halftime buzzer sounded. The visitors held a 38-27 lead.
It was the defensive rebounding and second chance point struggles that haunted the Rattlers in the second half which repeatedly led to second-chance points under the rim and eventually put San Marcos behind 48-34. Bench play from senior guard Sam Johnson gave energy to the team. He traded baskets, crashing the boards for putbacks— similar to Smithson Valleys’ plan of attack.
Trading buckets while trailing didn’t make a dent in the lead as the Rangers continuously found easy ways to score in the paint, resulting in their third win on the road, 74-58.
“I hope they learned you have to stop the other team from making a lot of layups. They had a lot of layups, probably 20 points worth,” Pinchback said. “Only a couple of times did we try to take a charge and it was the younger guys. I preached that and told them what was going to happen but we’re still learning. They’re a good team but you can let them hang around with second-chance points and they knocked down some big shots. We did some good things getting some of their guys in foul trouble and those types of things but you gotta play a complete game to beat those guys ‘cause they have quite a few weapons.”
Presley finished with a game-high 19 points in the loss. Senior guard Josh DeLeon was the only other Rattler in double-figures with 10. Johnson chipped in seven off of the bench.
San Marcos (14-12, 2-6) starts a two-game road stand and closes out the first round of district play against New Braunfels Canyon at 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 24. With consecutive losses now in the books for the Rattlers, Pinchback assures that his team is never going to give up under his coaching tenure.
“(We’ll) just learn from it. I mean we missed a lot of layups and we missed free throws,” Pinchback said. “I said points in the paint, free throws, rebounding. Those are the keys, it’s not magic. They’ll get it, we’re gonna keep plugging along but we’re not gonna lay down, not while I’m here, ever.”
