Slow start dooms Lady Rattlers in loss to Cibolo Steele

San Marcos didn’t have the start they wanted Tuesday night.

The Lady Rattlers fell behind 46-14 at halftime and weren’t able to overcome the deficit. While they did hold Cibolo Steele to a 2926 second half, the Lady Knights ultimately prevailed 75-40.

“[Steele’s] huge and they’re able to score inside and outside. They have Mia Hammonds, who’s already signed as a division one player going to UTSA next year. She’s 6’3 — almost 6’4 — very skilled, and she blitzed us,” head coach Jermiane Ervin said. “She started the game with 21 first half points, finished with 29 and their team hit 10 threes. So if she gets 29, [and] they get 30 [points] off threes and we make one, there’s the game. Plus 10 missed free throws from us. You can’t play a team that good and give up what we gave up. So I told the girls that’s on me and the coaching staff to have better answers.”

Steele (record) got to work disrupting the Lady Rattler offense early. The Lady Knights implemented a full-court zone with two defenders double teaming San Marcos’ ball handler before halfcourt and forced the Purple and White to give the ball up multiple times. Despite the ball pressure and turnovers, the Lady Rattlers kept Steele at bay midway through the first quarter trailing just 9-6. The Lady Knights really started to get into rhythm afterwards, finishing the period on a 13-5 run which gave them a 22-11 lead heading into the second Steele built off their run and more — winning the second quarter 22-2, which gave them a 35-7 advantage over the Lady Rattlers over the last 12 minutes of the half. The Lady Knights continued their double teams in the half-court, which stifled the Lady Rattlers’ offensive sets.

Despite the 32-point hole, San Marcos didn’t quit in the second half.

The Lady Rattlers came out with more focus and physicality in the third quarter, forcing turnovers of their own and finally getting their offense going in transition and the half-court game. The Purple and White’s intensity earned them a 15-11 quarter, the sole period San Marcos won during the game.

“I think that was a 46-point half for them — they almost had 50 — and in the second half we held them to 29 [and] we scored 26. So I told the girls we played them solid in the second half [and] we won the third quarter,” Ervin said. “I feel like we were like a boxer and we were punch drunk for a little bit. We were like bam, ‘whoa how many people do they have out here?’ Then we started getting our bearings and Aylecia Pierson kind of activated in that second half. Lanes started opening up for Ezra [Tobias] a little bit and we started to make some things happen.”

While the Lady Rattlers dropped the fourth 18-11, it was still a much more competitive effort than the first half. San Marcos was able to keep the Lady Knights at bay without a run like they saw earlier in the game, despite falling by seven in the final eight minutes.

San Marcos (20-8, 2-2) will hit the road on Jan. 19 and take on Converse Judson looking to get back in the win column as district play rolls on.

“Judson’s the truth, they’re real. Judson’s a different animal, we played them twice last year as well, and they’re very well coached and play a really good system. They murdered us at home last year. We had some girls out and they got after us full court. Over there, [at Judson] the last game of the season I thought we fought real well and we lost a tight game but it was back and forth,” Ervin said. “I think the success from the second half showed us some things that we can take into the Judson game. I thought the girls were really mad about the loss. It was kind of like they were still in shock with that loss. We haven’t been beaten like that all season except I would say McKinney North.

“But the girls were like ‘hey what time is practice tomorrow? We need to get back in the lab.’ So when you have teenage girls saying that, it gives me some good insight and some good spirit for what we got coming up on Friday.”

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