USC’s Brody Steinhauer (15) launches a 3-point shot during the second half of the Rebels’ game against GFW.

The No. 16-seeded United South Central Rebels hosted the No. 17-seeded Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Thunderbirds in a Section 2A Play-in game on Friday night, Feb. 28, in Wells.

The contest was close throughout most of the 36 minutes, but the Thunderbirds pulled away in the closing minutes to earn a 61-48 victory.

Both teams worked the ball inside during the opening minutes of the game.

GFW’s Cole Jacobson scored the first of his game-high 27 points when he swished a 3-pointer that gave the Thunderbirds a 10-4 lead three and a half minutes into the game.

USC’s Dylan Stephens responded with two consecutive baskets from behind the arc to tie the game at 10-10.

The Rebels eventually took a slim lead, but in the final four minutes of the first half the Thunderbirds went on an 8-2 run to hold a 33-27 lead at the intermission.

GFW increased their lead to 12 points in the early minutes of the second half before the USC defense began creating turnovers, which in turn ignited the Rebel offense.

“We hit a couple of 3-pointers to cut into GFW’s lead,” USC head coach Adam Walker said. “Then Zayden Schott’s traditional 3-point play got us to within two points with about eight minutes to play.”

The Rebels had three different opportunities to tie the game off of steals in the backcourt, but were unable to convert their chances into points

“Twice, in two on one situations we ended up missing a three. On another turnover we had a tough backcourt violation where we stole the ball in just the wrong spot and momentum brought our guard behind the half-court line,” Walker commented. “From that point on, GFW scored eight straight points and eventually pulled out the win.”

USC was 12-for-26 (26 percent) shooting 2-pointers and 7-for-23 (30 percent) on their 3-point attempts.

The Rebels made three of their nine (33.3 percent) free-throw attempts.

The Thunderbirds had a good night shooting the ball from inside the arc where they were 18-for-30 (60 percent). From outside the arc, GFW was 7-for-22 (32 percent). They shot seven free throws and made four (57 percent).

USC had four offensive rebounds and 23 defensive boards for a total of 27. GFW pulled down six rebounds off the glass on offense and 27 on the defensive end of the court for a total of 33.

The Rebels had 12 turnovers while the Thunderbirds committed nine. USC had eight steals while GFW had seven.

Leading scorer for USC was Schott with 12. Stephens tallied 10 and Jayden Barnick had eight.

Wyatt Sparks and Dylan Bonsack were the leading rebounders for the Rebels with six each. Schott led USC in assists with seven and in steals with three.

In addition to Jacobson’s 27 points for GFW, Carter Klages added 15 and Easton Taylor had 14.

“The story of this game was definitely our lack of converting in transition off steals in the second half,” Walker concluded. “We played well enough to win but just couldn’t make enough stops defensively and when we did, we couldn’t turn those stops into points on the other end.”

The Rebels end their season with an overall record of 9-18 and a 6-8 record in the Gopher Conference.