Lady Rattlers dominate Veterans Memorial as San Marcos begin long road trip

San Marcos rolled to another victory as the Lady Rattlers defeated the San Antonio Veterans Memorial Lady Patriots 70-23.

The Lady Rattlers and Head Coach Jermaine Ervin improve their record to 11-4 overall as San Marcos comes off their weekend tournament in New Braunfels.

“I knew [Veterans Memorial] would come in with energy and effort,” Ervin said. “I wanted to make sure our girls were able to sustain what they did in the Jimmy K Classic in New Braunfels. Just keep playing to the level of competition that we exude.”

San Marcos got off to a hot start and never looked back as the Lady Rattlers jumped out to a 19-0 lead in the first quarter before the Lady Patriots could score their first points of the game.

Entering the second quarter, San Marcos led Veterans Memorial 20-3.

Despite the Lady Patriots finding their footing in the second quarter, it was not enough as San Marcos exploded with 12 points in the second quarter to take a 32-14 lead.

The Lady Rattler defense refused to let up as San Marcos held Veterans Memorial to just five points in the third quarter.

“I couldn’t back off on our defensive pressure,” Ervin said. “I still wanted us to have that because that is who we are. If you take away someone’s backbone, how are they going to operate? I wanted to make sure defensively that we started off in our press before failing back to our man defense. We worked on our traps and matchup zones.”

Heading into the fourth quarter, San Marcos was up 57-19.

Holding the Patriots to just four points, the Lady Rattlers rolled to the win at 70-23.

With the dominant win over Veterans Memorial, San Marcos had the opportunity to work on different schemes and strategy that the Lady Rattlers sometimes are unable to do in a game time situation.

“I wanted to mix some things and see what some things look like,” Ervin said. “We haven’t been healthy all year but we have done an amazing job with girls out. Last year we couldn’t do that so it’s good to see that we can play with those who are out. Now we are playing with this toy where we can mix and match so it’s good to have a game where you can do that.”

The game also allowed multiple players to gain available minutes as well who also don’t see the floor as often.

“This was the game to do that because I couldn’t play everybody,” Ervin said. “We started off with 12 but now we are down to 10. … Everyone knows their roles but today we can get them extended minutes and see a couple of combinations with the guards and posts.”

San Marcos will start a six game road trip beginning on Friday as the Lady Rattlers travel to Medina Valley to take on the Lady Panthers.

Tip-off is at 7 p.m.

cmcwilliams@sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc