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It’s been a tough start to district play for San Marcos (18-8, 2-5) but they finally got over the hump on Friday night when they broke their four-game losing streak with a 56-36 win over New Braunfels (10-9, 0-6) at home.
The Lady Rattlers have been close in every game they’ve played in, only losing by an average margin of four points over the last four games. It’s been a challenge for the team to put together a complete game but head coach Veronda Kendall was pleased with her team’s effort for the full 40 minutes in the win.
“Everybody came out ready to play understanding how we needed to play for four quarters to win,” Kendall said. “We’ve had some close games and it's been irritating, so we just focused on being consistent for four quarters.”
Senior guard Miranda Lamb sparked the offense in the first quarter hitting her first three shots of the game. Junior guard Kayla Presley penetrated deep into the defense, then kicked it out to a wide-open Lamb, who netted the opening 3. With three minutes in the quarter, both teams suddenly caught fire from deep, hitting back-to-back 3s as if it were a 3-point shootout at All-Star weekend. Lamb contributed her second 3-pointer in this time frame, giving her a solid eight points in the first and leaving her team up 12-8 after one.
New Braunfels started to explore its 1-2-1-1 full-court trap, allowing the Rattlers to get the ball in the middle to forward Faith Phillips, who found a groove as the game went on by attacking the rim strong, forcing the defense to step up on her. And when they didn’t she made them pay. She opened the second quarter with a pull-up at the free-throw line. Once the defense committed to her, senior forward Grace Latham started to dominate inside. She grabbed her third board of the night, went straight back up, finishing through contact, and converted the old-fashioned 3-point play. Latham hit her man with a sweet post-hook making it a 5-0 run for the big.
“I just thank my confidence and every time I went to take the shot I already knew I was going to make it so that’s a really big part,” Latham said. “I liked how we played as a team. We passed the ball when we needed to and it worked out well.”
New Braunfels guard Kailee Mulkey hit a corner trey making it 28-23. Mulkey posed as an obvious threat every time she touched the ball because of her craftiness and ability to get hot in an instant and that’s what kept the Lady Unicorns in reach.
“Well, we knew about her. (Mulkey’s) a great player and so we wanted to make sure and try to limit her effectiveness tonight,” Kendall said. “It was something that we had talked about and were ready for in the game tonight.”
A sharp closeout by Lamb caused a foul in the same spot Mulkey had hit the previous three. She sunk 2-3 from the line with less than a minute in the half. The response of the guard helped her team cut the lead to 31-25 before intermission.
Latham owned the paint, allowing her guards to get open shots off at will. Sophomore guard Vivian Hernandez took full advantage of the open looks by hitting consecutive jumpers from the short corner, making it 41-30, and rewarded San Marcos with its largest lead of the night at the time.
“They’re going in, attacking Grace and attacking our post, that leaves us open on the outside shots — which, all of us can shoot, so when Grace or the inside gets the ball we can kick it out and get a shot,” Hernandez said.
Presley played distributor all night and it was no different when she broke her defender’s ankles by turning her around while dishing out her flashiest assist of the game to Hernandez, whose shot went through the net like silk. The Lady Unicorns went cold from the perimeter in desperation of a comeback but the hosts already had this win locked up at 56-36.
Latham and Mulkey both tied for a game-high with 17 points with the two scoring in alternate ways for their teams. The forward also added seven rebounds to her stat line. Hernandez found her stroke, leaving the floor with 14 of her own and didn’t neglect the defensive end either with three steals. Presley was a floor general with nine points, five assists and three steals.
The Lady Rattlers look to keep building on this win when they travel to San Antonio for another tough matchup with Smithson Valley at 7 p.m. San Marcos is two games out of fourth place with a chance to make up some ground in the district standings with a win on the road.
“You can expect to see grit, tenacity, hustle and fight. We know we have a tough opponent, so we’ll spend the next couple of days preparing and we’re gonna hit the road ready to do battle,” Kendall said.
