Marble Falls opens Wimberley Tournament Dec. 28

December 21, 2012, 9:00 am by Mark Goodson

By Mark Goodson

Highlander Sports Editor

Marble Falls will return to action Dec. 27-28 in the Wimberley Tournament.

The Mustangs are coming off a consolation championship in the Smithville Tournament, winning their final three games of the tournament to boost the team’s record to 8-11 overall.

The three-game win streak is the longest of the season and the consolation trophy is the first hardware brought home by the Mustangs under first-year head coach Neil Laminack.

The Mustangs open the tournament in the silver bracket.

Marble Falls plays San Antonio Eastside Memorial at 11 a.m. on Friday in bracket play. Austin Travis meets Wimberley in the top half of the bracket opposite the Mustangs at 9:30 a.m. Both games are in the main gym at Wimberley High School.

Also in the silver bracket are Laredo Nixon versus Cuero and Leander Vandegrift versus San Antonio Hawkins.

Marble Falls beat two Australian teams and private school Pope John Paul XXIII of Katy in the Smithville Tournament.

Guard Joey Blackledge and center Rey Baltazar made all-tournament.

Blackledge averaged just under 10 points a game for the tournament and helped the team to a recent hot streak from the perimeter.

Baltazar is the team’s leading scorer and rebounder for the season. Baltazar matches his season-high of 25 points in the win of Pope John Paul XXIII.

Marble Falls’ guards have played solid of late led by Blackledge and point guard Collin Edwards.

The Mustangs starters on the wings are Ben Stripling and Frederic Filsoof.

Coach Laminack has utilized his bench in the recent run, too.

The reserves are J.T. Watson, Zuri Buchanan, Nick O’Connor and Cody Seelig.