Third a charm COURTESY PHOTO BY CHARLETTE HAGEDORN The Brundrett Middle School eighth grade Lady Marlins took third place at a basketball tournament in Victoria at Faith Academy on Saturday, Jan. 30. Displaying the tournament trophy are, in front from left, Vivian Frank, Shelby Stephenson, Chase Hagedorn, Savannah Ortiz, Susana Valdivia and Marion Smith. Back row, same order, Abbe Mora, Kellie Owens and Morgan Milligan. Much depends on Friday.

If the Lady Marlins lose that game, they’ll be co-champions of District 31-A.

But if they win, they’ll be undisputed district champs and will draw a bye in the first round of the playoffs.

The issue is that Friday’s game is against the Falls

City Lady Beavers, and that

presents three problems:

• The Lady Marlins beat them in Port Aransas on Tuesday, Jan. 19, by one basket, 38-36

• Friday’s game is at Falls City – a difficult court to play on and an even more difficult court to win on, said Lady Marlins coach Stephanie Cowen

• Falls City happens to be the team that would share the championship – if they can manage to beat the Lady Marlins.

Falls City is always “very competitive and very well-coached,” Cowen said.

Besides, they’ll have their best shooter, a guard, back from a broken hand injury.

“On the other hand, we’ll have Rachael back,” Cowen laughed.

Rachael Phillips sat out the first Falls City game with a healing torn anterior cruciate ligament. That injury is now well enough for her to play, Cowen said.

“Having Rachael back is always an advantage,” she said.

Cowen said a playoff warm-up game scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 9, has been canceled. No opponent had been booked for that game, and Cowen said whether she schedules another warm-up game will depend on what happens the rest of this week.

“I’m happy with the way we look going into the (Friday) game,” Cowen said. “I’m especially happy with the way our defense has been playing. We need to spend more time on our shooting. Shooting has dropped off from the start of the season.”

Cowen said she doesn’t worry about winning.

“Winning will take care of itself if we put in the time,” she said.

A tie for the 31A championship would probably mean a game against a team such as Benavides or Ben Bolt, Cowen said. She said she hasn’t had time to scout either of those teams enough to understand them well.