No. 9 San Marcos continues winning ways, routs Cibolo Steele, 76-46

With San Marcos cracking the Top 10 in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches rankings, the No. 9 Rattlers extended their 21-game winning streak with a 76-46 rout over district rival Cibolo Steele on Tuesday night.

Led by their two senior McDonald’s All-American nominees Malik Presley and Kaden Gumbs, the Rattlers were able to turn a slim halftime lead into a 30-point triumph in the second half.

“I thought for the first game and a half of district ball, we were a little out of character not taking care of the ball,” Rattler head coach Dan Miller said. “First thing we said was let’s be ourselves. Let’s just relax, stop worrying about the district, relax and play Rattler basketball.”

In a close, tight first quarter, San Marcos (27-2, 2-0 27-6A) trailed 11-10 against Steele (14-11, 0-2) before closing out the quarter on an 8-0 run led by junior center Ory Williams off the bench, chipping in with four points and three rebounds. The Rattlers took an 18-11 lead after the opening period.

“Coach [Miller] just preached at practice to play big, we studied film, and I already knew what my opponent was going to do,” Williams said. “I just had to lock down the paint, they didn’t get any buckets while I was in there.”

Miller emphasized the spark Williams gave the team in the first quarter after senior forward Mateus Perkins picked up two early fouls.

“Ory gave us a great spark,” Miller said. “That is what we want our guys on our bench to do is give us that spark when we need it. Mateus has been so solid all year, rebounding, and the first four minutes tonight [junior Knight forward Javon Toliver] hurt us down low. Ory was able to come in and lock down the paint.”

The Knights were able to keep it within reach in the second quarter as Steele senior point guard Pablo Francis was able to use his quickness getting to the rim around the Rattler defense. Francis led the Knights in scoring on the night with 20 points.

“Our transition defense is built with a safety first, then declaring the ball,” Miller said. “Sometimes tonight we got beat with the safety and then others we didn’t declare the ball early.  We just need to communicate better, build that wall, and make it a 5v5 game out of the paint.”

With the second half starting, the Rattlers settled down at the break and began pushing the tempo led by Presley and Gumbs.

“We just needed to make our adjustments to that team because they [Steele] had really good guards and they were good at getting downhill,” Presley said. “We just had to sag off a little bit and keep our cushion because they weren’t the best 3-point shooters. It was just little adjustments like that opened it up for us.”

Presley and Gumbs led the offensive attack for the Rattlers on the night as Presley finished with 28 points, while the future Texas State Bobcat, Gumbs, poured in 25 points and seven assists.

“They are veterans, they are seniors, along with Perkins, and senior guard Jayven Cofer, you just have to find ways to get them in space and let them make plays,” Miller said when asked about his senior leadership. “We just let them know we have nothing but confidence in them to make those plays, and they are hungry to win.”

San Marcos outscored Steele 48-24 in the second half and it was the Rattler man-to-man defense that set the tone to lead to the lopsided victory.

“It is our calling card, we love it,” Miller said of the Rattler man-to-man- defense. “We call it turnovers to touchdowns, we want to create turnovers and turn them into scores. We are big

on what we hold the other team to with field goal percentage, and we’ve been holding other teams’ shooting to right around 31%.”

Presley was quick to say that this game will help carry the Rattlers’ momentum in their next district road contest.

“All gas, no brakes,” the senior forward said.

The Rattlers will take their Top 10 ranking and long winning streak on the road for game three of their District-27 season against the Judson Rockets on Friday at 7 p.m.