• Mike Forman •
• Originally published January 6, 2009 at 12:36 a.m., updated January 6, 2009 at 12:36 a.m.

The Memorial basketball team played five games during the holiday break, but it got a reminder during Monday afternoon's practice the vacation was over.

"You're where you are today because of your work ethic," Memorial coach John Grammer said. "If you want to get better, work harder."

Grammer was trying to motivate the Vipers (16-5, 2-0) as much as he was scolding them while they prepared to return to District 27-5A competition against Converse Wagner (13-4, 1-1) Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Memorial senior campus gym.

The Thunderbirds are ranked No. 20 in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches/Texas Preps state Class 5A poll and will be the most athletic team Memorial has faced this season.

"Them and (Converse) Judson are on another level," Grammer said. "For us to beat Wagner or Judson, we're going to have to play at another level. Wagner doesn't have a whole lot of size like Judson does, but they have a lot of athletes. What I would expect them to do is really put pressure on us."

Wagner opened district play with a 69-51 win over Corpus Christi King before dropping a 72-59 decision to Judson, which has a 17-0 record and is ranked No. 9 in the state poll.

"We have to take care of the ball and play with a lot of heart," Memorial point guard Marcus Salazar said. "We also need our post men to step up and dominate in the paint. Those are the keys for us. We have to dominate in the paint and take care of the ball."

The Vipers are coming off a 36-34 district win at San Antonio South San on Saturday night and opened district play with a 61-59 win over Corpus Christi Carroll.

"I told them before the game if they were able to go into South San's gym and pull out a win that would be a huge accomplishment and it was," Grammer said. "We really shut them down defensively. Of course, we didn't score a whole lot either, but we really did a good job defensively."

The Vipers haven't reached the 70-point mark in their last 13 games, but have won 10 of them.

"Some of the reason our scores are low are we're just not a great offensive team at this time," Grammer said. "On the other hand, we really do play good defense and we rebound fairly well. If we could find a way to score more points, we really would be able to take it to the next level."

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