The Rockets Are Too Much for the Rattlers to Handle

By Solomon Nash

KTSW Sports Reporter

CONVERSE, Texas –On Tuesday night, the San Marcos Rattlers went on the road to take on the number one seed in the district Judson Rockets. The contest would not go in favor of the Rattlers as they would fall in an 85-49 defeat.  

The Rattlers would go into this contest with a depleted roster as we learned before that starting Guard Cameron Bundage would be out the rest of the season with an apparent shoulder injury. He would join three other Rattlers who were out with an injury leaving only nine men able to suit up.  

The game tipped off and the Rockets wasted no time getting on the score sheet as they quickly jumped out to a 9-3 lead where they forced the first timeout of the game. Following the timeout was more of the same as they just kept scoring buckets at will from anywhere on the floor and they would wrap up the first quarter with a 17-4 lead.  

It would not let up in the second quarter as the Judson insane defensive pressure forced errors and allowed them to extend their lead to 24-4 early in the second.  

The Rattlers would fight back towards the end of the second period as they had multiple runs within the last 5 minutes and would be able to cut the deficit to 41-16 as the halftime whistle blew.  

The Rattlers would have their best scoring quarters of the game in both the third and fourth quarters of the game. Despite multiple scoring runs from the Rockets they were able to score 14 themselves to make it a 64-30 game in favor of Judson.  

They would go on to score 19 in the final quarter but it would not matter as Judson had won this game long ago and the score would be 85-49 final as the final whistle blew.  

We spoke with Head Coach Dan Miller after the game to discuss different struggles this Rattler team has been facing, “Yeah we don’t make excuses but fact of the matter we have four guys who were with us and now they aren’t”.  

He emphasized the mentally the team has had to deal with this, “We don’t use injuries as an excuse though and it’s a next man up mentality and I was happy to get both our freshman and our sophomores some playing time”.  

The Rattlers will look to try and lick their wounds and keep it pushing as their next opponent will be the Cibolo Steele Knights on Friday January 16th.