Lady Stangs continue home success

MARBLE FALLS — There’s no place like home, at least for the Marble Falls High School girls basketball team.

The Lady Mustangs beat Round Rock McNeil, 52-40, Nov. 18 to improve to 4-1 on the season. The contest was their first at Max Copeland Gym this season.

“We battled,” head coach Stephanie Gamble said. “They outsized us and they were bigger than us. The kids hung in there and kept battling. They took advantage of what they gave us.”

Marble Falls took a 14-11 lead after the first period and led 24-18 at halftime.

The Lady Mustangs began the game by going on an 8-0 run, but McNeil answered to tie the contest at 18.

Marble Falls finished the final minutes of the half by going on a 6-0 run.

The Lady Mustangs kept a six-point lead throughout the second half and used a variety of looks to confuse the defense.

Katy Cooke passed to Lindsay Ansley as she cut to the basket for a 26-18 lead. But McNeil scored on a putback and later scored when a guard tapped the ball back to a teammate underneath the bucket as she was falling out of bounds. 

Cooke found Katie Mosher for an outside jumper and later passed to Ansley again for a 32-24 lead.

That started an 8-0 run highlighted by a Cooke layup and two Mosher buckets thanks to a passes from Erica DelaHoya and Kimi Hicks.

The two teams exchanged baskets in the final quarter. 

Gamble said her team used a good pace to begin the contest.

“But then we got stagnant quickly,” she said. “I think part of it was we were trying to play too fast. Yes we want to push the ball when we have opportunities.”

But she said the key is to not make something happen when the defense is there to stop it.

Once the game turned physical, the Lady Mustangs did not let that bother them, the coach said.

“Down the stretch, I thought we played (with our) heads up,” she said. “They don’t mind banging bodies. I love that.”

Ansley led all scorers with 18 points, 10 in the first period. Mosher added 16, while Amanda Gray scored eight, and Cooke had five. 

Cooke said several factors contributed to the victory, but it came back to playing basketball the way the head coach wants.

“We did a whole lot better this game on transition defense,” she said. “I was happy.”

Mosher said the key was having multiple people step up on the offensive end.

“The more we score, the more confident we get,” she said. 

Cooke agreed.

“The more fastbreak points we get, the better,” she said. “The key was finishing our fastbreak, I think. We did a good job of not forcing it. We learned a lot from the past. We learned a lot from not forcing it as much.”

Marble Falls now prepares for its own American Bank Tournament, which begins today. The Lady Mustangs will meet San Marcos 9 a.m. at Max Copeland Gym, 2101 Mustang Drive. 

Gamble’s goals are to help her players compete, which means facing some top competition that includes powerhouses Llano, Del Valle, Austin Westlake, Leander and Cedar Park.  

Photo by Virgil Belk/Hill Country Sports Images