San Marcos catches fire in win over East Central

It took nearly an hour for Grace Latham to get the ball.

At the 4:50 mark in the third quarter, the junior center was fouled on a fastbreak layup attempt. San Marcos and San Antonio East Central lined up for Latham to take a pair of shots at the free throw line. But just as the referee was about to give the ball over, fire alarms began blaring inside the Snake Pit.

“Can I just shoot these? I’m ready,” Latham pleaded with the official. The ref declined and the building was immediately evacuated.

The San Marcos Fire Department arrived 10 minutes later and began sweeping the school for any flames. The teams waited patiently outside in the 59-degree weather with a light rain trickling down. The Lady Hornets jogged a few laps around the parking lot trying to stay loose. The all-clear was given another 32 minutes later and the players began warming back up.

The alarms went off at 7:58 p.m. Latham took her foul shots at 8:53 p.m., missing the first but making the second. The game nearly slipped away from the hosts after the 55-minute intermission, but the Lady Rattlers came back to earn the 56-49 victory on Tuesday.

“The kids did a good job to hang in there and battle with all of that that happened,” head coach Veronda Kendall said. “You know, the delay, the fire alarm, the standing outside and having to warm up again. Credit to our kids for showing some toughness.”

San Marcos began the game struggling on defense. East Central canned a trio of 3-pointers in the first quarter, taking an early 13-10 lead. The Lady Rattlers switched out of their 1-3-1 trapping defense to a combination of different zones, giving the Lady Hornets a different look each trip.

A foul shot from Latham and a baseline jumper from junior wing Miranda Lamb at the end of the quarter gave San Marcos the lead back, 15-13.

“Our defense was a little flat today, period,” sophomore forward Faith Phillips said. “We weren’t on our toes enough.”

The Lady Rattlers found their rhythm in the second quarter by ramping up the tempo. The hosts whipped the ball across the hardwood, finding the seams in East Central’s full-court press and getting multiple nods at the rim. By the end of the first half, they had built a 32-25 lead.

“We were able to take advantage of what they gave us,” Kendall said. “Because they were running two at our guards. And so, we were talking to the kids about getting it out of their hands and looking up and passing it instead of dribbling.”

The two teams traded buckets at the beginning of the third, scoring five points each before the fire alarm delay. It took San Marcos a bit longer than its opponent to get back into the swing of the game.

Latham’s free throw was the only point the Lady Rattlers scored in the quarter after returning to the gym. The Lady Hornets closed out on a 9-0 run, holding a 40-38 lead heading into the final eight minutes.

“We needed to push and get on our toes and our hands up and work,” Latham said. “And we weren’t really doing that.”

San Marcos bounced back. The team opened on a 16-4 run, featuring five different players scoring points. East Central brought the lead back within five in the final minute and intentionally fouled Phillips to preserve the clock. But the sophomore hit both of her foul shots to secure the 56-49 win.

“(It was) just tenacity,” Kendall said. “Just digging deep and taking advantage of some opportunities and staying aggressive.”

Lamb led the team with 22 points, followed by Phillips with 14 and freshman guard Vivian Hernandez with nine.

The Lady Rattlers (17-5, 2-1 district) will head to Converse Judson (21-4, 3-0) on Friday to take on the 2018 6A state championship runner-up Lady Rockets at 7 p.m. San Marcos believes it’ll be ready for anything they face in the matchup — including a fire drill.

“We just gonna have to get our mindset ready,” Latham said. “Keep it in our head that we’re going to go and win. And I think that’s about it.”