In the season opener MCC would travel to Sleep Eye high school to take on the Sleepy Eye Public on Friday night and would return to Sleepy Eye Saturday morning to battle Sleepy Eye St. Mary. A fun way to start the season, using the first game to get some nerves out, develop chemistry, and give the team a starting point to build off of and a second game shortly after to work on conditioning, competing, and scheme development among other aspects of the game.
Friday night the Rebels would put together a strong performance using an overwhelming full court defense and a stingy half court zone most of the game. Creating tips, steals, and forcing many turnovers helped the Rebels jump out to a fast and furious start. Leading 20-0 before Sleepy Eye would get on the board. Derek Kluis and Tanner Graphenteen were at the top of the press for most of the first half and would each end the game with 4 steals a piece. Christian Tentinger and Chant Mitchell would use their length in the middle of the press and each had 5 steals a piece. The Rebels stole the ball 22 times as a team and caused close to 30 turnovers total.
After the fast start, MCC would switch out of the press and played man to man defense, almost as quickly as they switched Sleepy Eye would drain back to back three point shots and the game lost a bit of its flow and Sleepy Eye’s man to man defense was fairly stingy once it was set up in the half court. The Rebels finished the half up 24-9 with a balanced attack in the first half. Tanner Graphenteen, Abe Paulzine, Aidan Dierks, Derek Kluis, Carter Benda, Christian Tentinger, and Chant Mitchell all scored, with Mitchell leading the way in the first half with 7 points.
The second half started similar to the first half as the Rebels put the pressure back on to build up a bit of a cushion as running time started a few min-utes into the half. The balanced scoring continued as 10 Rebels would get their name in the score sheet in the second half. Ryan Risacher, Bryce Hoekman, and Carter Lewis each earned their first points of the season and some their first career varsity points.
For the game the Rebels shot 23-44 from the field, but were 2-14 from behind the arc and 4-12 from the charity stripe. But a high concentration of shots was within feet of the basket keeping the field goal percentage as a whole above 50%. The Rebels finished the game with 14 assists, as Kluis, Graphenteen, and Mitchell each had 3 apiece. Abe Paulzine led the team with 7 rebounds, following with 5 was Chant Mitchell who has a solid all-around performance. Graphenteen led all scorers with 10 points, Mitchell had 9, as Aidan Dierks and Christian Tentinger each recorded 8.
