Rattlers tie for first at San Marcos Holiday Tournament

San Marcos wrapped up 2023 with their annual Holiday Classic from Dec. 28-30, winning a share of a three-way tie between the Rattlers, Cypress Bridgeland and Trinity Christian Academy for first place in the tournament.

The Rattlers second matchup of the tournament was a dogfight against Magnolia.

“Credit to Magnolia — I thought they played scrappy, tough and gritty tonight. And I didn’t feel like we played in those areas very well,” Head Coach Dan Miller said. “We've got to understand every game’s a different game and you've got to come ready and come out of the locker room at halftime ready. I think we had a little bit of entitlement today — that we’re just gonna win that game because we’re in our gym and we got some win streak or something. Hopefully we learned lessons today.”

The third quarter was another dogfight, with the Rattlers just being able to stay on top on the scoreboard. Magnolia continued to capitalize on the Rattlers’ mistakes, and kept the same intensity from the second quarter. Junior guard Zaire Jolivette was able to hit a clutch buzzer- beating three to end the half, which sent San Marcos to the fourth quarter with a 46-44 advantage.

The final quarter played out similarly to the third, but the Rattlers finally got the run they were looking for in the final minutes of the game. After a defensive start to the quarter with only two points scored in the first three minutes, the Rattlers got timely turnovers and profited off of their efforts in transition to finish the game on a 10-2 run securing a 56-52 victory.

“I thought Josiah (Hollmon) made some plays getting to the rim down the stretch and hit a couple free throws. That was clutch. I thought the big man Ory (Williams) did some good things there blocking a few shots and rebounding in that fourth quarter. Cash (Good) made the right decisions. But, the third quarter was a struggle,” Miller said. “I think we got outscored by nine or ten points. We weren’t getting on the floor for the ball and (they’re) all things that are correctable, we’ll watch film tomorrow and grow from it. I just really didn’t see the fight tonight that we need as we go through our tough district. We skated tonight. We escaped tonight is what we did. We escaped with a win instead of — I feel like — truly earning that win.”

The Rattlers’ faced off with Mineral Wells in their third matchup of the tournament. San Marcos cruised to a 71-27 victory over the Rams after jumping on Mineral Wells early and never looked back.

“It was a good start to the day against Mineral Wells, we did what we needed to do in that gym. Everyone played a lot,” Miller said. “It was fun to see our second group go out there and contribute in that game.”

San Marcos’ bench finished out the half just as they had in the first — with juniors Sergio Gutierez and Rene Rodriguez fighting for extra rebounds, creating second chance opportunities and finishing at the rim. While Mineral Wells played their best quarter of the game, San Marcos kept things in check on the scoreboard finishing off the Rams for a 71-27 win.

“It’s extremely important to have depth that can come out there and play. Every game is different, (and) every opponent is different. We felt this was a game where we wanted to play a lot of guys and they did what they needed to do and showed what they can do,” Miller said. “We wanted (them) to build confidence off that so when their numbers’ called in a district game they perform at the level we know they can.”

San Marcos’ fourth game of the tournament was against Trinity Christian Academy (TCA). The Rattlers lost a hard-fought 51-43 battle with Trojans where TCA took control of the game in the second half.

“We played Trinity Christian in the finals of this tournament last year and beat them pretty handily, so I knew they would be fired up and ready to play us. But we were ready for them too,” Miller said. “We had a solid first quarter and led 25-21 at halftime. It was low scoring because both teams were defending at a high level.”

The third quarter is where the Trojans really got in rhythm. TCA opened the first four minutes of the half on a 13-2 run, stifling the Rattler offense and capitalizing on the other end and gaining a 34-27 lead. The Trojans kept up that same pace to finish the quarter, converting from beyond the arch on multiple occasions to outscore the Rattlers 19-8 and build a 40-33 lead going into the fourth.

San Marcos did cut TCA’s lead to 44-39 midway through the quarter, but the Trojans executed enough down the stretch to hold the lead and close out the win 51-43.

“The difference was shot making. Basketball is a sport where — unfortunately and fortunately — when you’re on the shot making side, you like it. And then there’s tonight where you struggle from the free throw line, you struggle with your paint shots and you just can’t get the open threes to fall,” Miller said. “That’s one side of basketball, and you've got to find a way to win when that’s not happening. To their credit, they were the ones who did that tonight and all respect to them.”

San Marcos had one last chance to get a share of their holiday tournament — and it wasn’t an easy task. The Rattlers matched up with Cypress Bridgeland, who was 4-0 in the tournament which included a 19-point victory over TCA.

The Rattlers opened the second quarter on a 9-2 run, with junior guard Josiah Hollmon getting to the rack and converting offensively as well as taking charges on the defensive end. San Marcos kept their momentum throughout the second — winning the period 21-5 while disrupting Bridgeland’s offense in isolation situations and executing their offensive sets with ball movement. The Purple and White’s second quarter surge gave them a 40-24 lead at the half.

“Ball movement, straight ball movement (is what we emphasized in this game). We knew we had to pass the ball a little more, it was a lot of iso-ball last game but today we fixed it up and shared the ball,” Riddick said. “(Defensively) we knew they had good scorers — we knew at least three people had a green light (to shoot) on their team. So we had to stop them from (scoring outside) because they had some great shooters and make their big man work, so we had a good gameplan.”

San Marcos jumped into the second half with the same intensity. The Rattlers opened the third quarter on a 15-5 run, continuing to pressure the Bears’ ball-handlers defensively and sharing the rock with ball speed up to standard offensively. The Purple and White’s dominance persisted in the third, winning the period 24-7 and building a 64-36 lead in the fourth.

“We didn’t want to lose. We came into our house and lost to TCA and snapped our 24-game home winning streak and we had to start it back up,” Hollmon said. “Physicality was a big emphasis in rebounding and Zyaire (Jolivette) and Braydon (Heyward) did a really good job of shutting down number three, he didn’t get any shots off and that was a big focus too.”

Bridgeland did have one last effort though — the Bears opened the quarter on a 17-6 run slowing down the Rattlers’ offense and finally getting some rhythm offensively themselves. Despite winning the final eight minutes 3212, the Purple and White’s offensive explosion and defensive dominance in the middle quarters was too much for the Bears to overcome as San Marcos fended off Bridgeland to win 76-68.

San Marcos returns to play Saturday as the Rattlers face-off with the Laredo United South Panthers.

Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday at the Snake Pit.

judemcclaren.unity @gmail.com Twitter: @judemcclaren