Monday night the boys traveled to Mountain Lake to take on the Wolverines. C, B, and A would all be in action.
The C-squad put together two solid halves on defense. Playing very active in their press and zone, making offense tough to come by. Giving up 8 points in the first half and 11 in the second had the Rebels in control. MLAC played a physical tough style of defense as well, making it challenging for the Rebels to score, but putting up 17 in the first half gave MCC enough breathing room for a 10 point second half and a 27-19 road win.
The B-team would also look good on defense for most of the game and with balanced halves on offense the Rebels were off and running. Leading 29-17 at the break, Ross Engelkes would pump in 15 points, while Bryce Hoekman would add another 10, and Carter Lewis would round off the first half scoring with 4.
The second half would see five new Rebels work their way into the scoring column as Dylan Kramer would add 4, Wyatt Loosbrock 2, Hudson Schryvers 3, and Owen Gillette 4. But the scoring got started in the second half with two Ben Ahlers three-point shots from beyond the arc. Ahlers finished the half with 8 points and gave the Rebels momentum early on in the second half. MCC would ride that wave of momentum to a 50-33 win.
The Varsity game would be a tale of two halves against the 13-4 MLAC Wolverines. In a tight ball game, the first half would go to the Rebels and the second half would go to the Wolverines.
MCC would start out in a three quarter court press and drop back two three as we have been accustomed to seeing. If you aren’t giving up uncontested threes, that has been a good defense for the Rebels. In the first half MLAC would only connect on two, but it was the easy two’s that would get MCC in trouble on this end of the floor as well as ending possessions with a defensive rebound. Giving a good MLAC team second chance opportunities would cost the Rebels in both halves.
But the Rebel offense, even at times early looking a little clustered, found its groove and would put up 33 first half points against the aggressive MLAC man to man defense. Nate Kleven would connect on 10 of his 12 points in the first half, Christian Tentinger would attack the basket and have opportunities for 3, and-1 finishes. He finished the half with 9 points. Abe Paulzine would drill a 3, Aidan Dierks would end the half with 3, and Tanner Graphenteen and Chant Mitchell would each have 2 first half buckets. Sophomore Bryce Hoekman played well and aggressive scoring 4 first half points.
Leading 33-29 at the break on the road against the 9-1 Red Rock Conference leaders was a good place to be.
The second half would see MLAC come out in a 1-2-2 zone, picking the ball up near mid court and really pushing the Rebels to one side of the floor. This would throw off the rhythm MCC had on offense in the first half, as the floor spacing and player movement that the Rebels played with for much of the first half, which led to the ball getting deep into the paint on multiple occasions, turned into a more stagnant, ball watching offense. Pass fakes, to move the zone, screening the zone, or attacking off the bounce were less prevalent. The ball seemed to stick on one side of the floor or the other for periods of time and the MLAC defense was able to get set more times than not. They were aggressive in the passing lanes, forcing tips and turnovers. Once that started happening, MLAC was off and running. An aggressive attacking style defense led to an aggressive attacking style offense and the Wolverines found their way to the foul line 16 times in the second half to the Rebels 2. In the first half MCC was the aggressor and was at the charity stripe 12 times to MLAC’s 4.
As the turnovers mounted, so did the lead for MLAC. Taking control and earning a 10-point lead late in the game would be too much to overcome for the Rebels. Falling 61-53, in a hard fought game, just too many mistakes by the Rebels to earn the win.
Scoring Leaders: Christian Tentinger 13, Nate Kleven 12, Tanner Graphenteen 10, Aidan Dierks 7, Chant Mitchell and Bryce Hoekman 4, Abe Paulzine 3. Rebounding Leaders: Chant Mitchell 5, Nate Kleven and Bryce Hoekman 4. Steals Leaders: Aidan Dierks 5. Assist Leaders: Chant Mitchell 4, Tanner Graphenteen 3.
