Faith boys basketball team falls to Regents

AUSTIN — The Faith Academy boys basketball team lost to Austin Regents, 64-43, Monday to go 1-2 overall.

“They were pretty good,” head coach Larry Berkman said of Regents. “We were pretty good at times.”

Regents is a member of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools’ Class 4A.

“They have two pretty good players, a guard and a post,” Berkman said.

Regents also had left-handed shooters, he said. 

The post had the ability to play on the perimeter as well as in the paint, the coach said.

“When he missed it, he’d go right back up,” the Flames skipper said. “He was pretty salty.”

Regents took a 17-8 lead after the first period and extended that to 29-20 at halftime. 

But Regents took control in the third quarter thanks to a 25-9 effort, 54-29. 

Though Regents did not have any athletes who played football, Faith had to wait for several of theirs to finish the season, which meant fewer workouts.

“We still had only four or five workouts,” Berkman said. “They were fundamentally a little further than we were.”

The Flames recorded 30 turnovers. Most of those were reading a play but not in a timely manner, the coach said.

“Someone was open,” he said. “We could not get them the ball.”

Out of a five-step process, the Flames would get to the third or fourth step, but the final step — passing to the open player —  was difficult for them, Berkman said. 

“We couldn’t close it,” he said. “It’s just a lack of time.”

Faith won the second and fourth quarters, 13-12 and 13-10.

“We were 16 of 37,” the coach said. “We shot the ball pretty well. We just didn’t get enough shots. We’d score 74 points if we hit everyone of them. We’re not getting enough opportunities. It’s inexperience and not getting them time in practice. It’s really important in this sport, you have to be able to handle the pressure all the time.” 

Berkman, however, was happy with his squad’s effort in playing through the obstacles. 

“We ran the floor well,” he said. 

And the Flames’ court instincts on passing the ball were correct, he added, but the timing was off. 

“We’re still thinking about it because we’re not sure,” he said. “They made us look bad at times. It’s important how you start, but it’s more important how you finish. We didn’t finish very strong. It does matter how you finish.”

Overall, Berkman said his players will be able to use this game to make themselves better.

“It was a good learning experience for us,” he said. “The more we practice and get together, the better it’ll be.”

Courtesy photo