REBEL GIRLS BASKETBALL VS RTR

RTR 62 MCC 55

The MCC Rebel Girls Basketball team played their first home game of the season on Tuesday night. The Rebels played host to the Russell Tyler Ruthton Knights in the team’s second Red Rock Conference game of the season. The Red Rock Conference seems to have a large group of its teams struggling on the offensive side of the ball this season, leading to some closer and maybe lower scores than expected. This would be a roller coaster game for both the Rebels and the Knights, but in the end RTR would pick up the victory.

This game was a defensive battle to start, as the two teams missed shot after shot for the first five minutes and forty three seconds of the game. Makayla Hesse scored the first points of the game with 12:17 to play in the first half. Her three point shot put the Knights ahead, but it seemed to open up the baskets for both teams. The Rebels have failed to score twenty points in the first half in two of their previous three games, but on Tuesday, even though it took them over five minutes to score, the Rebels, led by Ava Deacon’s 10 first half points, scored 21 points. The Rebels actually led 21 to 18 with under two minutes to play in the first half. That is when the roller coaster started to go up for the Rebels as it was speeding up for the Knights. RTR scored the last nine points of the first half. Led by the ten points of Hesse, the Knights led at the break 27 to 21.

The Knights strong play, starting on defense and then transitioning to offense, continued in the second half as the Knights outscored the Rebels 14 to 2 to open the second half. In total, RTR had a 23 to 2 run going, from down 3 to being up 18. The lead climbed over the middle portion of the second half to as much as 23 points. MCC then rallied, using RTR turnovers to spur their comeback. Kelli Miller hit a pair of three point shots. Suttyn Schryvers, Kat Miller, and Calliegh Doeden combined for 14 second half points as the Rebels chipped away at the RTR lead. The final score was 62 to 55 in favor of RTR.

The Rebels committed 25 turnovers in the game while forcing the Knights into 18. When the team’s defense was creating turnovers, their offenses were scoring. Neither team shot all that well from the field; MCC made 32% of their shots while RTR made 35%. MCC made one less free throw than the Knights, but shot 7 less. Individually the Rebels were led by Ava Deacon with 16 points while Kelli Miller scored 11. Thea Schneider and Taylor Larson had 7 rebounds each to lead the team. Makayla Hesse scored 14 for RTR while Avery Schreuers added 10. The Rebels will play at Southwest Minnesota Christian on Friday night.