Faith Academy boys, girls squads ready for playoffs

JENNIFER FIERRO • PICAYUNE STAFF

MARBLE FALLS — The Faith Academy boys basketball team finished the regular season with a quick win against Cedar Park Summit 68-7 on Feb. 14.

Now, the Flames (11-7 overall, 7-2 district) turn their attention to Dallas Cambridge, their bi-district opponent, at 6 p.m. Feb. 18. The game will be played at The Fire Pit on the Faith campus, located three miles east of Marble Falls off RR 1431.

It will be a historic night for the Flames since it’s the first time they’ll host a playoff game.

“I think it’s huge,” Faith head coach Randy Denton said. “I think it’s another step in the right direction. We had a pretty decent year.”

Denton said Cambridge “is scrappy. They’ll get after it.”

So his keys to this contest come down to rebounding and entering the contest with the right attitude.

The win against Summit was quick because the Flames’ lead was so enormous it triggered the mercy rule. That means there was a running clock throughout the second half.

Denton said, while the Flames are happy to enter the playoffs with a victory, a harder-fought contest would have prepared them better.

The contest, which was supposed to have been played Feb. 11, meant he was unable to find an opponent for a warm-up game that would have been played Feb. 14.

Still, he said there were some positives to beating Summit for the second time in District 4-2A play of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools.

“Everybody got to play, and everybody got to score,” he said.

jfierro@thepicayune.com

TOP PLAYERS: points – Joseph Woods 20, Rawley Jackson 13

RECORDS: Faith is 11-7 overall and 7-2 in district.

UP NEXT: 6 p.m. Feb. 18, Faith vs. Dallas Cambridge at The Fire Pit on the Faith campus, located three miles east of Marble Falls off RR 1431

Faith Academy girls 64, Cedar Park Summit 7

MARBLE FALLS — The Faith Academy girls basketball team scored all the points it needed in the first quarter of its 64-7 win against Cedar Park Summit on Feb. 14.

The Lady Flames (26-4 overall, 10-0 district) dropped in 26 points in the first and allowed two for its 26th victory of the season.

It also was the program’s 87th straight district win and its eighth district title in a row. When head coach Jerry English coached Sweeny, it earned seven consecutive district crowns.

Faith will have a bye for the first round of the playoffs, which start Feb. 18. The Lady Flames play Abilene Christian at 2 p.m. Feb. 22 in a second-round match. Tune in to KBEY 103.9 FM Radio Picayune or at KBEYFM.com for a live broadcast of the game.

The coach noted the undefeated district campaign was a goal of seniors Kristen Cherry, Juliette Fisher and Joanna Piatek.

“I knew when we got the start we did, (Summit) did not have enough offense to keep us from going off on them,” he said. “We got a bunch of steals, and we were able to outlet (for fast breaks). We broke the ball well.”

Coaches began to substitute quite freely five minutes into the game. To preserve junior guard Taylor Denton, English let her play the first half but wouldn’t allow her to enter the contest in the second half.

So she scored 27 points in 16 minutes, seven more than her District 4-2A average.

“The first seven minutes,” English said, “she was tremendous.”

By the start of the third quarter, a running clock was used since the mercy rule was in effect.

TOP PLAYERS: Taylor Denton 27 points, 6 steals, 5 assists, 3 rebounds; Hannah Cozby 15 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 assist, 1 block

ON OFFENSE: points – Joanna Piatek 8, Sierra Brinkley 4, Kristen Cherry 4, Juliette Fisher 4, Alisha Williams 2; assists – Cherry 4, Fisher 4, Williams 1; rebounds – Fisher 6, Piatek 4, Brinkley 4, Cherry 3

ON DEFENSE: steals – Brinkley 3, Cherry 3, Fisher 2, Piatek 1; rebounds – Fisher 3, Cherry 1, Brinkley 1, Piatek 1.

RECORDS: Faith is 26-4 and 10-0 in district.

UP NEXT: 2 p.m. Feb. 22 in the second round of the playoffs vs. Abilene Christian at The Fire Pit, located three miles east of Marble Falls off RR 1431