Rattlers hand Central Catholic first loss in 80-62 win

San Marcos handed San Antonio Central Catholic its first loss of the season as the Rattlers cruised to an 80-62 win in an all-snake mascot matchup.

Rattler head coach Dan Miller said eliminating turnovers during the first quarter pushed the Rattlers towards the win.

“When we take care of the ball and play low turnover basketball, we are really good,” Miller said. “In the first ten minutes of the game, we were not doing that. We were making some poor decisions and turning the ball over. Once we got focused and locked on that, we were really good so I’m proud of the win. This was a really good opponent and we have a lot of respect for them. They are going to have a good season but tonight we rose up to win.”

The slow start by San Marcos saw Central Catholic charge out to an early 12-5 lead before the Rattlers stormed back to tie the game up at 12-12.

Another run by the Buttons pushed the lead out to 18-12 before a Malik Presley buzzer-beating 3-pointer shrank the lead down to 18-15 at the end of the first quarter.

“Sometimes we come out and we just probe for a bit,” Miller said. “However, we need to come out and be the hunters instead of being the hunted. We need to come out aggressive but also valuing the ball. I thought our guys were ready, it was just trying to take care of the ball. Once we stopped with the errors, we were locked in with the passes and playing with a little bit better space which makes us successful on offense.”

The Rattlers held the Buttons to just four points in the second quarter, while San Marcos scored 23 points to take a commanding lead heading into halftime at 38-22.

It was the success of the defense that ultimately led to the game being flipped though Miller knows his team can still improve.

“Our defensive intensity really picked up in the second quarter,” Miller said. “We are a team that has some really good spurts. If we want to become a championship level team, we need to be a start, middle, finish team. That is something we need to work on to be a complete team for all four quarters.”

Central Catholic immediately shot out in the third quarter to go on a 9-2 run to cut the lead down to just 40-31.

Despite the early run, Miller was proud of his team for still sticking with the game plan.

“We built some good momentum but we know against a good team that the game can change quickly,” Miller said. “To their credit, they hit two threes and hit a And 1 all within a minute and fifteen seconds. But our guys didn’t panic. They stayed with the game plan and built the lead back up by playing smart basketball.”

The Rattlers held the Buttons at bay for the rest of the second half as San Marcos secured the a 82-60 win.

Presley led the team in scoring with 23 points followed by Jayven Cofer with 21 points.

San Marcos returns to play Tuesday, Dec. 6 for a road trip to Brentwood Christian High School at 6:30 p.m.