BOYS FINISH REGULAR SEASON WITH WIN

The B and A teams finished up their respective regular seasons Monday night. The B-squad looking to finish with a win and a record of 18-5. Varsity looking to go into the playoffs with confidence and another conference win as their seed is set at 4th, playing WWG and will have earned the 3rd best conference record regardless of this games outcome.

It took a minute for the Rebels to get rolling, but once they did they were efficient and tough to stop. Scoring 27 points in both halves and giving up 15 in the first and only 14 in the second, the Rebels rolled to a 54-29 regular season finale win. Bryce Hoekman scored 10 first half points and contested many shots in the lane, playing fundamentally sound defense like a wall. Ross Engelkes would also score 10 in the first half, while Dylan Kramer would connect on 1-2 from the line and Carter Lewis ended the first half with 6, and would dominate the second half, scoring 14 more points. Giving him a game high 20 to end his B-squad season. Ben Ahlers would do what he does and drill two threes in the second half, Gavin and Owen Gillette would each have a bucket, and Michael Risacher would connect on a 3-point shot to round out the balanced scoring for the Rebels. Congrats on a fantastic season to all of the B-squad player, thank you to players, families, and all that support Rebel Basketball.

Last time RRC played MCC it was a close game, the Rebels won by 15, but RRC would go 8-22 from the foul line, so the opportunities were there. The Rebels knew they couldn’t overlook their opponent and needed to play tough on both sides of the ball to earn a win going into the playoffs.

The Rebels would get off to a nice start, patiently picking apart the Falcon zone, as Tanner Graphenteen would catch a skip pass, attack baseline, and find a cutting Christian Tentinger on the backside for the lay-up. The Rebels would steal the ball on the next Falcon possession as Tentinger would swoop in and score again in transition. Nate Kleven would find his way to the foul line after another Falcon turnover and hit 1-2.

The Rebels would make the Falcons work on their next possession which after about 45 seconds, MCC would force another turnover. On the following possession Chant Mitchell would play an inside out game with Abe Paulzine for three. Abe passed in to Chant at the elbow, as Paulzine relocated towards the corner, Chant hit him in stride for the three-point shot. Up 8-0 at the 15-minute mark, RRC took its first timeout.

The two teams traded possessions without scores until RRC scored with 13:41 left in the half. But Christian Tentinger would answer right back with a strong drive to the bucket. The Falcons would score again on their next possession then Chant Mitchell would hit a 15-foot jump shot, followed by a Tanner Graphenteen floater a couple possession later and MCC was up 14-4 with under 11 minutes to go. The Rebels had chances to extend their lead, but neither team scored for the next 3 minutes until Nate Kleven hit another free throw and then Graphenteen would finish in transition off of a Tentinger steal and outlet pass.

Now the Rebels were up 17-4, but would be stuck on 17 for what seemed like an eternity, but over 4 minutes of game action. Next thing you know its 18-13 with 2 minutes left in the half. An Aidan Dierks three helped break the lid on the basket with 1:30 left, and Dierks would hit a nice runner in the middle of the lane to get the Rebels to 23, but RRC was hanging around, they knocked down two more buckets before the half and would go down only 6, 23-17. It felt like the Rebels were still in control, but it was only a two possession game and a fast start would go a long way to improve MCC’s chances.

The second half would see MCC on defense first, a tipped pass by Tanner Graphenteen and a steal by Nate Kleven would lead to a 1-1 opportunity for Tentinger in transition, he would get fouled on the shot and make 1-2. The two teams would go cold for a couple minutes again before Chant Mitchell would find Nate Kleven in the hi lo situation. Nate would hit the bucket and get fouled.

MCC would force another turnover on the next possession and Tanner Graphenteen would attack and make a pretty pass to Kleven for the easy two on the block. Rebels were up 28-17 with 15 minutes left in the game. Another defensive stop was followed up by a strong Chant Mitchell drive and soft bank shot for two. The Falcons would answer back with their first bucket of the half, 6 minutes into the half and cut the score to 30-19 before Christian Tentinger would drill a corner three at the 12:11 mark.

Now the Rebels were off and running, literally. Defense turned into offense quickly as the Rebels pushed the pace and found lay-ups and open jumpers in transition. With 4:21 left in the game the Rebels were up 20, 56-36. Not known at the time, this would be the last time RRC would score as they ended the game with 36 points. MCC would end with 67, led by Aidan Dierks 21 points and 15 of which were in the second half. Dierks really sparked the Rebels in transition and his three, three-point shots were pure.

Maybe the shots of the night belonged to Ryan Risacher as the Senior was playing his final regular season game alongside Chant Mitchell and Nate Kleven. But Risacher would connect on two three-point shots, he would also have a rebound and blocked shot in 9 minutes of play. Kleven would unfortunately foul out of the game but made the most of his 14 minutes, scoring 9 points, grabbing 7 rebounds, and 2 steals. Mitchell had a great all-around game, scoring only 6 points, Mitchell had 8 rebounds, 4 blocks, 1 steal, and 9 assists. A nice way for these three to end their regular season careers. Thank you seniors!

The Rebels will face WWG as the 4 seed this Saturday in Worthington at 11:30. The two teams split their regular season meetings. WWG won the first one in Westbrook by a score of 69-62 in OT. MCC won the latest game 45-36 in Slayton.

MCC finished their regular season at 14 wins and 11 losses which placed them 7th out of 20 teams in the section just behind Dawson-Boyd and just in front of Lac Qui Parle Valley in the North and 3rd out of the Red Rock Conference teams with an 11-5 conference mark. SWC won the conference going 15-1, following by MLAC who went 13-2. HBC and WWG went 9-7, HLOF went 8-8, AE went 4-12, while Edgerton and RRC went 1-15.

Scoring Leaders: Aidan Dierks 21, Christian Tentinger 10, Nate Kleven 9, Chant Mitchell, Abe Paulzine, and Ryan Risacher 6, Tanner Graphenteen 4, Bryce Hoekman and Carter Lewis 2, and Ross Engelkes 1. Rebound Leaders: Chant Mitchell 8, Nate Kleven, Bryce Hoekman, and Christian Tentinger 7, Aidan Dierks 5. Steals Leaders: Tanner Graphenteen 4, Bryce Hoekman, Nate Kleven, Abe Paulzine, and Christian Tentinger 2. Assist Leaders: Chant Mitchell 9, Tanner Graphenteen 4, Christian Tentinger 2.