One would think a team ranked third in the state, less than 10 games into the season, would free fall out of its spot with two losses.

But 4A No. 5 Lake Travis (7-2) faced a tough slate at last weekend’s South Padre Invitational High School Beach Bonanza, going 2-2 in one of the toughest early-season tournaments the team has ever played in.

The result dropped the Cavaliers from third in the state rankings.

“It was nasty,” Lake Travis head coach Jan Jernberg said of the competition. “There were four or five teams that didn’t belong in it, but after that, every single team could play.”

The Cavaliers opened the tournament with a dominating performance against Palmview, flying to an 84-21 shellacking. Zach Karczewski and Billy Sherakas led the team with 16 points, followed by Chris Dash with 15, Bob Carlton with 10, and Matt Tyson, Drew Nikolovski and Yusuf Abdullah – all with five.

But the waters went from smooth to choppy almost immediately, as Lake Travis locked up with 5A No. 10 San Antonio Clark in its second game. It was a challenge the Cavaliers met head-on, but was also one they couldn’t sustain in a 74-62 loss.

“We were tied with five minutes left against Clark, and the team just wore out,” Jernberg said. “I didn’t go to the bench enough, and that’s my fault. But laying on the defensive pressure, it was really the only way we could keep up with them. It worked for a while until we ran out of gas. But it’s no slight to us. That’s a good team, and we’ve just got some work to do.”

Lake Travis rebounded with a 42-37 win over St. Thomas Catholic in the third game of the tournament, but all that earned the Cavaliers was a date with 5A No. 13 Converse Judson – the tournament’s defending champions.

Karczewski and Sherakas led Lake Travis in the win over St. Thomas with 16 and 13 points, respectively.

The Cavaliers lost that final game of the tournament in the closing seconds of regulation, 36-34.

David Eads led the team with 12 points and seven assists, and Karczewski had 10 points.

“Judson lost to Clark by 16, and then we lost to Judson in the last two seconds of the freaking game,” Jernberg said. “We just ran into trouble that we had a hard time getting out of because we can’t go on scoring runs like we did last year. At least not yet.”

The four games did show an obvious trend down in scoring.

“It’s just that right now, we’re struggling,” Jernberg said. “I say that in the sense that we’re not bad, we have a few guys scoring well, but what it comes down to is that we don’t have that automatic offense we can call on in a pinch. I think that offense will fall into place in time.”

A lack of depth – or rather – experienced depth may have also been the culprit in the four-game whirlwind. But that should be expected. Last year’s team came in with essentially six starters that were used to playing with each other. This is a new group with a new chemistry, and that’s going to take time to develop. While Jernberg agreed that the depth wasn’t what it needs to be at this point in the season, he’s still extremely optimistic.

“I’m quite content with the progress that we made, keeping in mind we have to continue that progress to get where we want to,” he said.

Early slips shouldn’t forecast the future, either. With one of the tougher schedules the team’s ever had, it should be great preparation for what always amounts to a weak region when the playoffs roll around.

“The rankings are screwy right now, and don’t tell you a whole lot,” Jernberg said. “The region isn’t that strong, and it’s turning into a rat race.”

Now Lake Travis turns its attention to its annual tournament – the Hill Country Classic – which will be held this Friday and Saturday.

“It’s going to be a good one,” Jernberg said of his two-day tournament. “We’ve never not been in the final four of the tournament, and we’re defending back-to-back champs, so we’re going to load it up and go.”

Lake Travis’ first game will be Friday at 1:30 p.m. in the main gym of the high school against Westwood.

The tournament features Westwood, Mansfield, Katy Taylor, St. Stephen’s, San Antonio John Jay, Kyle Lehman, Schertz Clemens, Waco Midway, Dripping Springs, Cedar Park, Temple, Pearland Dawson, Vista Ridge, Austin High and Katy Seven Lakes.