SMHS GIRLS BASKETBALL
San Marcos dropped their first game of the season, falling to the Cedar Park Vista Ridge Rangers 59-51 in the home opener for the Lady Rattlers.
San Marcos dropped their overall record to 11 as the Rangers outscored the Lady Rattlers 26-6 in the third quarter.
“It was a tale of two halves,” Head Coach Cooper Haralson said. “In the first half, we did a lot of things right. There were some things we didn’t do well, with blocking out on defense. … We didn’t [play help defense] great in the first half, but offensively took care of the ball pretty well. We were able to get out and transition, and we just were able to execute for the most part.
“In the second half, we didn’t do any of those things. It was a complete flip of the script. Looking at the third quarter and you give up 26 and you score six. That’s the most points we gave up the last two years and we have never given up a 26point quarter.”
The Lady Rattlers jumped out to a 9-5 lead in the first quarter before the Rangers closed out the quarter on a 8-2 run, taking their first lead of the game. Senior Melayna Perkins hit a layup before the end of the quarter to cut San Marcos’ deficit to 12-11.
San Marcos exploded in the second quarter, opening the period on a 10-3 run to take back the lead at 21-15.
Following a threepointer from Vista Ridge, San Marcos responded with a 9-1 run to enter halftime up 3019.
Vista Ridge opened up the third quarter on a massive 13-0 run to retake the lead at 32-30 before going into the fourth quarter up 45-36. The Rangers never gave the lead for the rest of the game en route to their 59-51 win.
“When you go into the fourth quarter, you’re down 14 points and all of the momentum is in their favor, it’s tough,” Haralson said. “It’s a tough hill to climb. The thing I told the [team] is you can’t afford to have a quarter like that and you’re better than that. That’s the frustrating part.
“But we can’t get too high and too low based on one game, which is literally the second game of the season. We know who we are and we know what we’re capable of. [Vista Ridge] was the better team tonight and they played better than we did. That’s the point of the matter.”
Despite the tough loss, Haralson is excited for the Lady Rattlers next challenge as San Marcos heads down south for the Corpus Christi Riviera Roundup Tournament.
“I’m glad we’re going into this tournament,” Haralson said. “We’re going to play a lot of games, have a lot of opportunities to execute and do things better. I’m glad we don’t have to dwell on it. I’m glad that we’re hitting the road, getting out of town for a few days and we’re going to be on the court for five games over the weekend. It’s a lot of opportunities for our girls to learn from what happened tonight and execute better.”
San Marcos will play Corpus Christi Ray at 11 a.m. Thursday before playing San Antonio Stevens at 2:30 p.m.
