Lady Rattlers drop heart-breaker to archrival New Braunfels

The Lady Rattlers weren’t able to get going Tuesday night.

San Marcos fell 61-60 to New Braunfels in a heart-breaker that went down to the wire. The Lady Unicorns were able to keep the Lady Rattlers’ transition game at bay through four quarters, but San Marcos had one last opportunity at the end of the game down three to force overtime and were only able to put up two.

“As a team, we didn’t play team defense. We’ve been known for our defense all year long. It’s been carrying us. We’ve been pretty locked in defensively with our match ups [and] knowing what we need to do,” head coach Jermaine Ervin said. “A lot of our girls already know the girls from New Braunfels, and we were scattered. We were everywhere but where we were supposed to be today. We were not connected, and that’s the biggest thing I can say — we’ve been connected all year, and we were not connected tonight. We were like people on islands.”

The competitiveness started from the opening tip. After New Braunfels jumped out to a 7-2 lead, San Marcos responded with a 6-0 run to take a 8-7 lead midway through the first. The Lady Unicorns responded to go up 13-8 — but the Lady Rattlers had a spurt of turnovers that led to transition buckets to knot things up at 13-13 at the end of the first.

The back and forth play continued in the second. Both teams traded baskets for the first five minutes of the quarter with New Braunfels leading 22-21. The Lady Rattlers did steal the momentum before halftime, with sophomore guard Azariah Fennell hitting a buzzer-beating three to take a 26-24 lead at the break. Her halftime buzzer-beater was just one of the buckets from a 30-point performance that kept her team in the game.

“I definitely [knew] that I had to keep my game up and keep my teammates in it. If no one’s scoring, then I have to do something — I saw that I had to step up. I’ve missed so much [because of an early season injury] so I’m still trying to get back into [the flow of things],” Fennell said. “After the Judson and East Central games, I realized that a switch has to come that I have to step up and play. Even though [there were] miscommunications, we all have to step up at some point, and I just knew that today had to be the day that I had to step up.”

The Lady Unicorns came out with a bang and started the third quarter on an 11-2 run. That run continued until the three-minute mark of the period, building up to 21-8 which gave New Braunfels a 45-34 lead. San Marcos wasn’t ready to lay down yet though — the Lady Rattlers responded with a 11-3 run of their own where the Purple and White tied the game before the Lady Unicorns got a bucket with a foul that gave them a 48-45 lead heading to the fourth.

The Lady Rattlers continued their late-quarter momentum at the beginning of the final eight minutes, getting their hands in passing lanes to get transition opportunities as well as being patient in their half court sets to execute their offense. Despite the hot start, the Lady Unicorns kept things competitive, regaining the lead at 55-54 at the four-minute mark. The finish came all the way down to the wire, with San Marcos trailing 61-58 with a chance to tie and force overtime. The Lady Rattlers were able to get a two to fall, but New Braunfels ultimately prevailed 61-60.

“[Number] 30 and three are our main focuses going into East Central. We gotta stop the guard, we can’t let her run off for 30 like we did tonight. And then we gotta stop the young lady in the middle. She’s a good player,” Ervin said. “She’s very athletic, [and] she does a lot for them. And then we can’t let number two shoot wide open jump shots. We gotta play them hard, because they always play hard. So we gotta bounce back and play hard, and if we can do that we’ll be okay.”

San Marcos (18-8, 2-4) returns to the court on the road against East Central (22-10, 4-2) on Jan. 26 at 7 p.m.

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