Rebels girls roll in league competition

It was a solid week of Southern Alberta High School Girls Basketball League play for the W.R. Myers Rebels varsity girls basketball team as they earned two wins.

The latest was a 65-60 win over Medicine Hat Kwahommies as Myers ramped up their game late, scoring 30 points in the final quarter and erasing a nine point half-time deficit.

“I think it came down to us just wanting the win more than Medicine Hat,” said Kenney Wood, head coach of the W.R. Myers Rebels varsity girls basketball team. “In the fourth quarter we seemed to be a little more aggressive, which helped us get some important defensive stops. We attacked the rim very well and also got some much needed offensive rebounds,”

A very physical game with Kwahommies players 6-foot-2, 5-foot-11 and 5-foot-10 clogging up the paint to score inside, the Rebels were able to loosen up that interior defence by hitting seven three-pointers.

“It meant that Medicine Hat had to come out on the shooters, which then allowed a little more space to work in the paint,” said Kenney.

Katessa Gross has 17 points, 15 of those coming from beyond the arc. Kelly Hansen was next leading scorer with 10 points. Nina Gansner had nine points to go with eight rebounds.

Also hauling in eight boards was Caroline Steinborn who also chipped in eight points. Sam Terry’s line included seven points and four assists. Paige Wood had seven points and five rebounds. Hayley Lepard scored seven points, dished four assists, and snatched four steals.

“It was another great team effort, no matter if they scored points or not, everybody battled hard and they all were a critical part of this win. It was a very fun game to watch and it was great to finally win a close one,” said Kenney. “In our pregame talk, Brandon (Bullock) and I told the team that we weren’t sure who would be high scorer this game and so that makes us very dangerous. It was interesting how those words played out with Katessa and Kelly being top scorers, considering they didn’t score much on Friday night.”

The Friday game Kenney refered to was being able to turn the tables big-time on the Kate Andrews Pride, avenging an earlier loss in the Rebel Classic championship final.

The Rebels trounced the Pride 77-39, racing out to a 41-23 lead and never looking back.

“We changed a few things since the last time we played them and it worked out well for us. We came out fairly strong in the first quarter and got the lead right away. We kept up the pressure and played most of the game in a man-to-man defensive coverage. This defense seemed to take away a lot of their open shots. Kelly, Taylor, Sam, Katessa and Megan played great pressure defense and contributed a lot in the win,” said Kenney. “Our guards really took care of the ball well which allows us to get up the shots that we needed. Overall it was the complete team effort which gave us the victory. As we were walking out,  Kate Andrews had the 2014 Myers Classic Championship Plaque in full view in their trophy case. The girls sure wanted to take that home.”

Sadie Lund led Rebels scorers with 14 points. Steinborn (12 points, 10 rebounds) and Gansner (12 points, 17 rebounds) both registered double-doubles. Paige Wood had 10 points and five rebounds and Lepard had 10 rebounds and five steals.

W.R. Myers Rebels girls basketball team play Winston Churchill Griffins at home today in a varsity-only game at 6 p.m.