San Marcos’ comeback falls short against New Braunfels

San Marcos couldn’t quite complete the comeback as it fell to the New Braunfels Unicorns in a 46-41 loss.

Though head basketball coach Jermaine Ervin felt like his team played hard, it was the simple mistakes that came back to haunt the Lady Rattlers, especially at the free throw line.

“I thought we played hard, had excellent energy and effort,” Ervin said. “But I thought we didn’t execute the little things right. We were 6-15 from the free throw line and [the Unicorns] were 24-29. In a five point game that tells you what it is. They made two 2-point baskets, five 3-pointers, and the rest were free throws. That is not acceptable so we had a long talk about that after the game about the little things correctly. I felt like we were taking short cuts when we didn’t need to instead of being deliberate in what we were doing.”

The game was set by both teams’ defensive effort as neither the Unicorns nor the Lady Rattlers could generate their offense as their formidable defensive schemes kept the other from scoring.

San Marcos had trouble scoring on the New Braunfels defense when the Unicorns switched to multiple defenses before settling into a zone defense.

“Early in the first half, they were switching from 1-2-2 to man defense then back to 1-2-2, to man to trap to 1-2-2 and back to man,” Ervin said. “In the second half after we figured [he defensive scheme] out and began getting flow with our offense, New Braunfels just stuck to a 1-2-2 defense. What ended up happening was we were not executing the game plan with us not getting to our spots and attacking the zone. I’ll give them credit because they had good hands and we were not getting hands up to get down and not getting hands down to get up. I thought we over-passed a little bit in the zone where we were getting more turnovers than shot attempts.”

But despite the loss and the mistakes, the “never-give-up” attitude of the Lady Rattlers is the reason San Marcos stayed in the game which is something Ervin can build off of as they start a three-game road trip.

“That is the staple of our team,” Ervin said. “[We] are going to play hard,” Ervin said. “I’ve never get on them for playing hard … They play with resolve. You had Amiya Moore going 3-3 from the 3-point range in the fourth quarter. Kylie Joseph comes off the bench and hits another one. After the game, we talked about how we need to shoot those shots before we are down big. We are so deliberate to pass the ball and get the best shot. Sometimes the best shot is the one Amiya Moore is taking at the end of the game. Those are the ones we need to get … we have a lot of upperclassmen that were on that playoff run and know what it takes. We are going to be able to build on that.”

San Marcos returns to action against East Central on Tuesday at 7 p.m. on the road.