Taylor Schroeder plays defense for the Rebels in their game against the Wolverines.

The United South Central girls basketball team was one of four teams competing in the Blue Earth Area Holiday Tournament.

The Rebel girls’ first game was on Thursday afternoon, Dec. 29, when they faced off against the Sibley East Wolverines.

The USC Rebels fell to the Wolverines by a final score of 69-28.

Both teams came out playing aggressive defense to start the game and by the end of the first half, each team was in the bonus situation.

The Wolverines’ Elizabeth Sell scored the first point of the game on a free throw but Rebel Olivia Bungum’s traditional 3-point play put USC on top 3-1 less than three minutes into the game.

After falling behind 5-3, USC regained the lead behind Bungam’s basket from outside the arc for a 6-5 lead.

However, Sibley East went on a 13-0 run to go on top 18-6 with 9:38 remaining in the first half.

Two free throws by USC’s Maddie Dallman finally put an end to the Wolverines’ streak. The Rebels made many trips to the free throw line and eventually narrowed the Sibley East lead to five points at 20-15 with 5:44 to go until intermission.

The Wolverines would increase their advantage back to 11 points at 28-17 before a steal and subsequent layup by Bungum narrowed the gap to 27-19 six seconds before the buzzer sounded ending the first half.

USC made 10 of 11 free-throw attempts in the first half to help keep the game close.

In the second half, the Wolverines were scoring three pointers while the Rebels were having a tough time making their shots.

Leading the scoring for the Rebels was Taylor Schroeder with nine, followed by Olivia Bungum who had eight.