Rattlers avenge first loss at home with 70-63 win over Clemens

Protecting home court is a priority to the Rattlers.

The Snake Pit is starting to become one of the toughest home gyms to play at in the district. San Marcos (14-10, 2-2 district) takes defending its home court very seriously. 

The team was disappointed in receiving its first home loss at the hands of Cibolo Steele on Friday. The Rattlers bounced back with a strong performance over Shertz Clemens (9-14, 1-3), picking up a 70-63 win over the Buffaloes and improving to a 5-1 record in front of their home crowd.

With the crowd providing energy early, the purple and white got off to a hot start, scoring eight unanswered points in the first two minutes of the game, six of which came from crafty freshman guard Kaden Gumbs. The visitors settled down when they recorded their first points of the game following a timeout but Gumbs kept the pressure on Clemens’ defense by scoring in a variety of ways. With 3:35 left in the first, the freshman ball faked his man out of the equation then calmly knocked down a 3-pointer from the right wing, making it 16-7. The freshman recorded 11 first-quarter points to the Buffaloes’ 12, as the Rattlers held a 22-12 lead after one quarter.

“It’s called a home-court advantage for a reason,” head coach Steven Pinchback said. “We stress that like we’re at home, we shoot here everyday. Our fans are here, our cheerleaders, our cheerleader coaches are here so we gotta support all those people. We gotta win for them.”

Senior guard Josh DeLeon got involved in the offense by catching an air-ball directly under the rim, going to a reverse layup and avoiding contact on the finish. As the guard took on the scoring role, Clemens worked back into the game, cutting the lead to 36-31. After the Buffaloes hit back-to-back perimeter shots, the home team responded with a 7-0 run to close the quarter, ignited by a one-handed bounce pass from senior guard Jack Cuevas’ from half court to freshman forward Isaiah DeLeon cutting to the rim. 

With the 43-31 halftime lead, Pinchback wanted to see his big men get in front of Clemens’ forwards by denying the entry pass into the post.

“I told the kids ‘Let’s just keep playing hard,’” Pinchback said. “I just think we were playing harder than they were. I still want to see more blocking out, I’m worried a little bit about the bigs, so we had to front him and have backside help.”

His team responded by containing Clemens’ forwards in the paint, making it difficult for them to get anything easy inside. It was back-and-forth in the third but Clemens mimicked the hosts with a 6-0 run of its own at the end of the third, cutting the Rattler lead to eight.

The visitors had done a great job slowing down Malik Presley through the first three quarters, but the freshman forward became the team’s primary playmaker in the fourth. Presley used a euro-step from America to France to open the lane for him early. Presley found Isaiah on the block the next possession leading to a score. Gumbs found Presley heading to the basket, but he was fouled on the play. After one of the team’s worst free-throw performances last week, Presley stepped up, hitting 5-8 from the line and giving his team a 62-49 lead with under 3:30 left to play.

Every time it seemed San Marcos was pulling away, Clemens stormed back into it. The Buffaloes took advantage of the 3-point line when the bigs were covered from the adjustments made in the first half, but even the shooting of the visitors couldn’t get them over the hump. The Rattlers closed out a seven-point win and never relinquished the lead from the tip-off to the final buzzer.

“As soon as we tipped and we got the ball and I scored that first bucket, I knew we were gonna come out on that hot start and just gain momentum to win the game,” Gumbs said. 

Gumbs finished with a team-high 22 points, finding his way to the rim with ease early and often. (Josh) followed his teammate closely with 16 points and four rebounds. Isaiah ended the night with eight points and spent most of the night locking down Clemens’ forwards in the paint.

As one of the youngest teams in the district, the Rattlers freshmen hold the confidence of four-year varsity starters. They’re out to prove that the grade of the player doesn’t display the talent level beside it.

“They’re gonna find out soon and they’ll know we’re coming for the next three years after this,” Isaiah said. “And after that, they’ll know.”

“It does give us something to prove because everybody is sleeping on us. But they don’t know who we are and when we show them who we are, they’re gonna find out that we’re not just some weak freshmen. We’re some freshmen who can play,” Gumbs said confidently.

San Marcos’ youth tries to keep putting the district on notice in a tough road test without its home crowd when they return to the road this Friday against New Braunfels (19-7, 1-3) at 7 p.m. The Rattlers currently sit in fourth place with a 2-2 record in district play.