Rebel boys pick up two basketball wins

USC’s Zayden Schott tries to dribble by a defender earlier in the season when the Rebels hosted Madelia. USC picked up two wins last week to improve their record to 6-10.
The United South Central Rebels were able to add to the win column when they downed the Rochester STEM Academy Cobras 61-49 on Monday, Jan. 20.
A very slow start saw the Rebels down by 12 points late in the first half but some full court pressure and turnovers turned up the intensity and the Rebels took a halftime lead of 27-26 after a bucket by Jayden Barnick inside, coach Adam Walker explained.
“The second half defense was amazing,” coach Walker said. “STEM did not score a point for the first nine minutes while the Rebels built a lead up to 16 points.”
Leading the way for the Rebels was Barnick, who had 18 points in the game. He also led the team in rebounds with nine.
Dylan Stephens added 11 points and both Zayden Schott and Wyatt Sparks had nine points.
Overall the Rebels shot 21 of 34 2-pointers (62 percent), 3 of 16 for 3-pointers (19 percent) and 10 of 20 from the free-throw line (50 percent).
The Cobras were 4 of 16 for 2-pointers (25 percent), 13 of 37 for 3-pointers (35 percent) and 2 of 4 for free throws (50 percent).
The Cobras had one more rebound than the Rebels, at 31 to 30. But USC had 16 assists to their 11, 13 steals to their 3 and 12 turnovers to their 24. Both teams had two blocked shots.
USC 60, Hayfield 54
The United South Central Rebels won a close game against the Hayfield Vikings on Friday, Jan. 17. The final score was 60 to 54 in favor of the Rebels.
The Rebels used a late first half run to take a 24-19 lead into halftime after Dylan Bonsack sparked the defense with three steals and two straight fast break layups to end the half.
“We went on a 7-0 run to start the second half with some inside buckets from Wyatt Sparks,” coach Adam Walker said. “We extended the lead to as many as 18 with about nine minutes to go in the game.”
Hayfield caught fire from 3-point distance and cut the lead down to eight before Bonsack hit a deep three-point shot at the end of the shot clock to stop the Vikings’ momentum.
Sparks led the Rebels with 22 points and eight rebounds in the game while Bonsack had 13 points.
Jayden Barnick had seven points and Dylan Stephens had six points and six rebounds.
As a team the Rebels were 21 of 31 for 2-point shots (68 percent), 5 of 18 for 3-pointers (28 percent) and 3 of 11 from the free-throw line (27 percent).
The Vikings were 13 of 32 inside the arc (41 percent), 7 of 30 from behind the arc (23 percent) and 7 of 15 from the line (47 percent).
The Rebels had 27 rebounds to the Vikings’ 38, 17 assists to their eight, five steals to their four. Both teams had two blocked shots and both had 12 turnovers.