Lady Rattlers stifle Round Rock Westwood for home win

The Lady Rattlers turned up the pressure Tuesday.

San Marcos took down Round Rock Westwood in a 49-35 victory, fueled by stifling defense and forced turnovers throughout the second half.

Junior guards Ezra Tobias and Aylecia Pierson led the way for San Marcos scoring-wise, with 14 points each in the contest. Tobias was also a defensive catalyst, picking defenders’ pockets and creating possessions for the Lady Rattlers for the duration of the game.

“I kind of jumped on the girls [postgame] because I’ve been talking with Coach Harrelson. He’s been really spearheading some of our defensive philosophies and one of our philosophies is we don’t want to give up 40. We want to keep you under 40,” Head Coach Jermaine Ervin said. “And we gave up 19 in the first quarter. So I told them that we have to play with energy and effort. Our defense lays down the foundation for our offense. I knew they were going to sit in zone and pack it in. A lot of teams have been showing us man on film, but they’ve been playing zone when they come in.”

The first quarter was where Westwood (6-7) saw the majority of their offensive success in the game, jumping out to a 19-14 lead after a physical eight minutes where the Lady Warriors were able to get to the line and knock down threes as well. That’s when San Marcos turned up the intensity.

“So [while] we gave up 19 in the first quarter, for the rest of the game we gave up 16. One in the fourth quarter, nine in the third, and seven [of those points] were free throws,” Ervin said. “We locked in defensively and extended the court. We start off [with] pressure and it just starts getting to [our opponents] at the end. You can handle it early, but when you’re tired, then you have to deal with it.”

The Lady Rattlers held Westwood to just six points in second and capitalized offensively, putting up 13 points to win the quarter by seven.

Tobias capped off the quarter dribbling through multiple defenders and scoring on a buzzer-beating layup to give the Lady Rattlers a 27-25 lead going into halftime.

“Oh man, I say it all the time, [Tobias] is a monster. She’s our monster. She’s gonna give us 110 percent [effort] in practice, in the game and pregame,” Ervin said. “Her energy and effort makes everybody play at a faster pace –especially Aylecia [Pierson]. Them two together, it’s like a track team on the court and then it just becomes infectious. So she really spearheads what we do, and today she was aggressive offensively which I love.”

San Marcos (6-2) really began to shut down Westwood’s offense in the second half. While the Lady Rattlers did give up their highest quarter point total besides the first, they were also able to put up 13 points in the third to push their lead to 40-34 heading into the fourth.

Tobias led the Lady Rattlers in steals and forced turnovers, but it was a complete team effort with multiple players getting their hands in passing lanes and stripping defenders in the final eight minutes. The team held Westwood to just one point in the fourth quarter, getting a steal on nearly every defensive possession in the final period.

San Marcos controlled the pace on their way to a win, closing out the game, 49-35.

The Lady Rattlers will return to the court on Nov. 28 against stellar 4A program Geronimo Navarro (6-2) inside the Snake Pit at 6:20 p.m. for another non-district test.

“One percent better every day [is what we want to do], we've got to get one percent better. We've got to clean up some things and then we've got to start a little faster. We’re like a boxer and we’re throwing jabs [early], if we’re boxing, I want to be Tommy Hearns–knockout or get knocked out,” Ervin said. “Let’s go get to it. We learned that in Dallas. North McKinney came and they were mature and they came to really knock us out. We learned that we gotta jump on these teams. We played some tough teams, physical teams, and we by far had the smallest team in Dallas. I was so excited to see us match rebounding, hustle plays [and] make teams look like they struggled. The excitement is there for sure, but we have to continue to get one percent better every game. We have to also make sure that our defense leads to our offense.”

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