REBELS CELEBRATE VICTORY OVER CANBY LANCERS

Friday night MCC would face the Canby Lancers at the C, B, and Varsity levels. Canby is in the North half of the section and would prove to be great competition at all levels.

In the first half of the C game, MCC would jump out on the Lancers early, but Canby ended the half on a run to make things interesting. The Rebels would go into the half up 3, 16-13. Hudson Schryvers and Andrew Holm would lead the way in the first half scoring 4 points each. Even though Canby made a run at the end of the half, the Rebels played solid defensively and would improve on that effort in the second half. Giving up 13 first half points, MCC would only allow 12 in the second half. The offense started to click as well. After scoring 16 first half points, the Rebels would put in 22 more to give themselves a little breathing room against Canby. 8 of those 22 would be scored by Dawson Schreier and 9 second half points by Schryvers would lead the way. Gavin Gillette, Dylan Kluis, Drew Wajer, Jackson Kramer, and Carson Engelkes would all contribute in the score column.

The B-Team would be in for a barnburner as Canby would play the Rebels extremely tough. In a first half that would end up only being seperated by two points, as the MCC would hold a 26-24 advantage, Canby would do most of its damage from deep as MCC relied on transition buckets and paint touches. Bryce Hoekman would connect on 4 buckets from the post with a soft touch around the basket and Carter Lewis, the smooth Sophomore would lead the Rebels in the first half scoring with 10 points, scoring in a variety of ways. Dylan Kramer, Owen Gillette, and Ross Engelkes would also connect on baskets, scoring 2, 2, and 4 respectively to round out the 26 first half points.

The second half would prove to be more about defense than offense for both teams. With neither team connecting on a single three point shot in the half, being able to rebound, take care of the basketball, and finish around the rim was going to be paramount. This is where Hoekman would come up big as he connected on 4 more second half shots and a free throw bringing a game high 17 points for the Rebels. Hoekman also grabbed 9 rebounds in the contest.

As a team the Rebels only gave up 16 second half points leading them to a tough 45-40 victory. Bryce Hoekman: 17, Carter Lewis: 12, Ross Engelkes: 6, Ben Ahlers and Dylan Kramer: 4, and Owen Gillette: 2

The Varsity game would be a tale of two halves as the game started out looking like it was going to be a runaway victory for MCC, but Canby who has been a second half team this year would connect on 11 three-point shots, go 13-17 from the free throw line and defensively put together a hard nosed second half, making for an exciting ball game.

MCC would turn the pressure on right away starting the game on a huge 15-0 run. A steal on the first defensive possession by Chant Mitchell would be followed up by a bucket off the baseline inbounds play on the first offensive possession by Mitchell as well. This would allow the Rebels to get set up in their press and use their length to put the pressure on. Derek Kluis would get a steal on the next possession but the Rebels were not able to connect on a bucket, but then Tanner Graphenteen would get a steal on the following possession and he would turn that into a free throw opportunity. Graphenteen would go 1-2, but finished the night with an impressive 8-10 performance from the charity stripe. 4-4 in the second half when they were needed the most.

After the hot start, Canby would start to find their touch, knocking down 4, first half three-point shots. They had 4, threes, 2, twos, and 4 free throws in the first half. Giving them a total of 20 points against the Rebels 39. Aidan Dierks would score all of his 12 points in the first half giving the Rebels some fire power off the bench. Abe Paulzine would put in solid minutes as well and knocked in a three-point shot of his own giving the Rebels 15 bench points in the first half between Dierks and Paulzine. Paulzine would also have 5 rebounds and 2 assists in the ball game. Graphenteen would finish the half with 6 points, Christian Tentinger 5, Nate Kleven 7, and Chant Mitchell 6.

Things were looking good for MCC going into the half, but Canby has been notorious early in this season for putting up big second halves and they were about to do the same thing Friday night.

Coming out of the break MCC would give up a wide open three, exactly what they didn’t want to do, and Canby would follow that with a stop on defense and another bucket on offense. A 5-0 would have the Rebels calling a timeout early in the second half. MCC would respond with buckets by Kleven and Mitchell who would pace the Rebels with big second half production. With only four MCC players scoring in the second half, 26 of the team’s 37 second half points would come from the duo. Christian Tentinger would continue his steady night connecting on 7 second half points giving him 12 on the night. Tentinger would also pull down 8 rebounds in the contest.

The Lancers would stay hot though as Ty Stoks, Dylan Houseman and Zach Ouroda would all connect on at least two three-point shots as Stoks hit three. As the Rebels would switch out of zone defense to try and cover up the shooters, they struggled to get matched up which was leading to open looks consistently and Canby took full advantage of it. Knocking down the 7, second half three-point shots would lead to late closeouts and attacks from the Lancer perimeter players. This would get Canby to the free throw line often, stopping the clock and stealing points. Canby went 9-10 from the line in the second half.

Even wIth all of the Lancer pressure on defense and shot making on offense, the Rebels had answers in the names of Chant Mitchell and Nate Kleven. The senior big man would dominate the painted area securing 10 and 12 rebounds respectively. Mitchell would connect on an amazing 9-10 from the field including a three point shot and Kleven would end the game 9-15. Mitchell had 20 points, 14 in the second half and Kleven ended the game with 19 points 12 in the second half.

The Rebels were outscored in the second half 46-37, but the big first half defensively and the consistent scoring on the offensive end would be enough to help MCC hold on for the section win, 76-66.

Scoring: Chant Mitchell 20, Nate Kleven, 19, Christian Tentinger and Aidan Dierks 12 each, Tanner Graphenteen 10, Abe Paulzine 3. Rebounding: Nate Kleven 12, Chant Mitchell 10, Christian Tentinger 8, Abe Paulzine 5, Tanner Graphenteen 4. Assists: Tanner Graphenteen 6, Chant Mitchell 4.