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Gavin Gillette -
Bryce Hoekman -
Aidan Dierks
As tradition, the MCC boys basketball team starts their season off playing Sleepy Eye Public and Sleepy Eye St. Mary the second weekend of the season. Both games would be exciting back and forth contests with MCC coming up short, but experience was gained from one game to the next.
MCC started off playing Sleepy Eye Public Friday night. Sleepy Eye brought everyone back from their team a year ago that the Rebels defeated by 5 points. Experience was definitely in the advantage of the Sleepy Eye team, which would make for a great ball game. The Rebels would strike first as Senior, Bryce Hoekman would score the first point of the season after being fouled on his shot. Hoekman would miss the second but an offensive rebound by fellow Senior, Carter Lewis, who would find Hoekman for a bucket to give the Rebels an early 3-0 lead.
The teams would then trade multiple misses over the next few possessions, sometimes even two or three misses in a row because of offensive rebounding for both teams, which would be a point of contention for the Rebels in both games. Hoekman would find the bottom of the net again to break the scoreless streak for both teams to put the rebels up 5-2.
The two teams would play even basketball over the next few minutes before Sleepy Eye would go on a run to end the half. 18-11 was the run which was fueled by offensive rebounding by Sleepy Eye which turned into 3, three-point makes. Going into the break, Sleepy Eye pulled ahead by 7, 31-24.
The Rebels would battle back in the second half led by an aggressive Ross Engelkes. Engelkes finished the game with 13 points, with 10 of them coming in a fantastic second half effort. Carter Lewis would net 6 points in the second half, and Ben Ahlers would hit a three, Hudson Schryvers would net 5 of his 7, Aidan Dierks would hit a 3, Gavin Gillette would knock in 5 of his 8, and Hoekman would add 4 of his game high 15 points in the second half. The offense definitely settled in scoring 36 second half points, but the defense never really found a rhythm. Multiple efforts would be thwarted by offensive rebounds as the Rebels gave up 11 in the game. Allowing Sleepy Eye to play to their strengths on multiple possesthe sions turned out to be too much to overcome for the Rebels. The Rebels would fall 64-60 to Sleepy Eye in an entertaining first game of the season.
Leading Scorers: Bryce Hoekman 15, Ross Engelkes 13, & Aidan Dierks/Gavin Gillette each had 8 Leading Rebounders: Bryce Hoekman 10, Ross Engelkes 9, Gavin Gillette 5 Leading Assists: Carter Lewis 5, Aidan Dierks 3 Leading Steals: Gavin Gillette 4 MCC returned to Sleepy Eye Saturday morning to play Sleepy Eye St. Mary for the second game of the season. St. Mary would come into the game ranked #7 in the state in Class A. They defeated Tracy Milroy Balaton in the game before MCC vs. Sleepy Eye Public Friday night by a score of 83-54. Another great opportunity for the Rebels to learn and grow against a very good opponent.
This game would start out similar to the season opener with MCC taking the early lead on an aggressive attack to the basket by Gavin Gillette. There was a noticeable increase in the Rebels energy and comfort level in this game as the nerves were more evident the night before.
St. Mary would answer back with a mini 5-0 run before Aidan Dierks and the Rebels would go on their own 8-0 run. Dierks would drill a three, assisted by Hudson Schryvers, followed by a Bryce Hoekman two, followed by an Aidan Dierks three.
In similar fashion to game one, the two teams would go back and forth going on mini runs here and there until the end of the first half. Just like the night before the Rebels would give up a mini-run going into the half. Offensive rebounds, a couple turnovers, and what looked like early season heavy legs would allow St. Mary took a 29-24 first half lead.
The Rebels would respond on offense in the second half again by putting up 39 second half points. Gavin Gillette would connect on a three, Bryce Hoekman would deliver in a big way on offense in the second half with 16 of his team high 20 points. Hoekman would also add 9 rebounds in the contest. Ross Engelkes would connect on 5, Aidan Dierks would score 6 of his 16 points in the second half. Carson Engelkes would deliver some quality minutes and drilled a three in the second half. Carter Lewis would connect on 4, and Hudson Schyrvers would add a bucket of his own in the second half.
There was noticeable improvement on both sides of the ball, but there are certain parts of the game that can be hard to overcome against really good teams and really good teams typically have a really good player. The offensive rebounds were tough to overcome in the second straight game and some untimely turnovers that turned into 6 quick points for St. Mary with under 4 minutes to go, turned a 3 point ball game into a 9 point game in a matter of seconds. Couple that with an outstanding performance by St. Mary standout William Walters, who made contested shot after contested shot, ended up with 35 points. Nobody else scored in double digits. The Rebels would fall 72-63.
Even though MCC left Sleepy Eye with two losses, they competed with two quality basketball teams and will be tested again in their next contest against a solid Pipestone squad in Pipestone on Monday. Battle tested early in the season is a great opportunity for the Rebels to know where they stand, what they need to improve at, and what they did well against quality opponents.
Leading Scorers: Bryce Hoekman, 20 Aidan Dierks, 16 & Gavin Gillette with 7 Leading Rebounders: Bryce Hoekam, 9, Aidan Dierks, 7 & Gavin Gillete with 5 Leading Assists: Ross Englekes, 4, Aidan Dierks, 3, Carter Lewis, 2 Leading Steals: 5 Rebels each had 1 steal, Hoekman, Dierks, G. Gillette, Lewis, Schryvers
