The new look Mustangs

The Marble Falls High School boys basketball team is having fun. At least, that’s how it looked during a four-team scrimmage Nov. 15.

The Mustangs were able to push the pace and had several options on the fastbreak. Connor Docherty lined up behind the three-point line while another player rotated to the basket and a third queved up for a 10-foot jumper.  

“That’s something that we emphasize, getting shooters in the spots,” head coach Bruce Etheridge said.

Etheridge, in his first season with the Mustangs, enjoyed what he saw, for the most part anyway.

“Overall, our kids played hard but out of sync on passes,” he said. “We need to do a better job of making passes.”

Transition buckets will be a huge part of what Marble Falls does this season.

“We have to do a better job of pushing the ball and filling lanes,” the coach said. “I didn’t think it was one of our better performances.”

He was pleased to see the effort to get the ball to posts Shane Minnick and David Morgan.

“I thought those guys played hard,” Etheridge said. “I thought they did a good job of finishing baskets.”

One area he wants improvement is spacing between the guards, he said. 

The Mustangs will get another chance when they travel to play Hays Consolidated today at 8 p.m.

Hays features a 6-foot 6-inch, 250-pound point guard.

“They do a lot of up-tempo penetrations and kickouts,” Etheridge said. 

The Mustangs will use a variety of looks to defend and confuse Hays. But one certainty is important. Marble Falls will be on the attack, the coach said, continuing to minimize turnovers as they look to score quickly and catch the opponent offguard.

Etheridge said patience will be the order of the first few weeks of non-district play, especially since the Mustangs will more than likely start several sophomores, who used their summer to play in an Amateur Athletic Union league.

Those players — Minnick, Morgan, Docherty and their classmates along with Bron Etheridge — will form the nucleus of what the Mustangs will become this season.

That will be a team that pushes the pace with full-court pressure all over the floor in the hopes of getting quick baskets.

The athletes who played during the summer have a lot of chemistry. They know each other’s tendencies, which will make this a fun season. 

It’s one Etheridge himself is looking forward to.

“I realize it’s going to be a process,” he said. “I’m hoping we can work out the kinks and be ready for Hays.”

jfierro@thepicayune.com

Photo by Virgil Belk/Hill Country Sports Images