By DAVID MAY
Special to Mineral Wells Area News
The Mineral Wells Rams had the D, but not the O, at Windthorst on Tuesday, falling to the Trojans, 43-33.
The Rams’ offense took plenty of shoots but could not get many of them to drop, which was unfortunate because Mineral Wells played well enough to win on the defensive end.
“Defensively, we played probably our best (game) of the year,” said first-year Rams head coach Taylor Luster.
The Rams (5-14) were unable to break single digits scoring in the first three periods, netting just four, nine and six points, respectively while the Class 2A Trojans (9-5) were able to ease out to a 23-13 halftime lead before taking a 38-19 advantage into the final frame.
That was when the Rams got hot, outscoring Windthorst 14-5 in the final period. But it was too little too late.
Mineral Wells had plenty of looks, firing off 57 shots from the floor to 34 for the Trojans. But the Rams were just 5-of-28 from inside the arc (18 percent) and 7-of-29 shooting the deep ball for an overall 21 percent shooting percentage.
Windthorst was more efficient, shooting 50 percent from the floor overall. Still, the Rams’ defense held Windthorst to one of its lowest-scoring performances of the season.
Coach Luster is looking for his team to consistently put together complete games on both ends of the floor. They next get that opportunity at the San Marcos Tournament on Dec. 28-30. The Rams open with Bridgeland before facing Trinity Christian, San Marcos and Sweeny.
Mineral Wells then has three non-district games at Wichita Falls (Jan. 3), at Decatur (Jan. 5) and home against Bridgeport (Jan. 9) before district action begins Jan. 12 at home versus Glen Rose.