Some poor shooting in the first half by the United South Central Rebel girls basketball team – combined with some hot shooting by their opponents – gave the Rebels a loss last Monday night.

The Martin County West Mavericks fired in 33 first half points, while the girls of USC had just 11. The second half was much closer, with MCW scoring 27 and USC 21.

That made the final score MCW 60, USC 32.

As a team the Rebels made 8 of 33 shots from 2-point distance for 24 percent, 3 of 18 from behind the 3-point arc for 17 percent and 7 of 17 from the charity stripe for 41 percent.

Meanwhile, the MCW girls were 19 of 37 from 2-point range for 51 percent, 7 of 15 for threes for 47 percent, but only 14 percent (1 of 7) from the free-throw line.

Hannah Olson led the Rebels with 11 points, having made all three of the USC 3-pointers.

Hannah Meyer had seven points, Izzy O’Rourke had five points and Dani Kirkeide added three points.

Lexi Johnson, Maya Zebro and Macy Zebro all had two points.

O’Rourke led the team with 10 rebounds, Johnson added eight and Kirkeide six.

Kirkeide also had two steals and three assists, while Maya Zebro had four assists and Macy Zebro two.

The Mavericks had 23 assists to the Rebels nine and nine steals to the Rebels six.

The USC girls are set to play Waterville-Elysian-Morristown on Tuesday, Feb. 23.

BA 66, USC 53

It was a pretty close game during the first half of the contest when the United South Central girls basketball team hosted the Cardinals of Bethlehem Academy on Friday night, Feb. 12.

At the end of the half-time buzzer, the USC Rebels were trailing by just two points, 26-24.

But while the Rebels scored 29 more points in the second stanza, the Cards put up 40 points and won the game 66-53.

Izzy O’Rourke exploded for 17 points in the game, hitting 5 of 14 two-point shots and 7 of 14 from the free-throw line. She also grabbed seven rebounds, had two assists and a blocked shot.

Dani Kirkeide added 11 points for the Rebels’ efforts along with three rebounds and two steals.

Hannah Olson had eight points for USC four rebounds and four assists. Maya Zebro and Kelsie Chapman both had five points with Zebro leading the team in rebounds with nine.

Lexi Johnson had four points and Hannah Meyer three to finish off the Rebels scoring.

As a team, USC made 14 of 43 two-point attempts (33 percent), 3 of 10 three-point tries (30 percent) and 16 of 31 free-throws (52 percent).

The Cardinals were 17 of 33 from two-point range (52 percent), 7 of 20 from behind the arc (35 percent) and 11 of 19 from the charity stripe (58 percent).

Other stats from the game were pretty close between the two teams.

Both the Rebels and the Cards had two blocked shots and six steals. The Cards had 19 fouls, the Rebels 18. And BA grabbed 30 rebounds, while USC had 28.