Rebels girls struggle at tournament

By Greg Price
Taber Times
gprice@tabertimes.com

W.R. Myers Rebels varsity girls basketball team were dominated by the Lindsey Thurber Raiders 80-36 in the bronze-medal game in its tournament run at Hunting Hills on the weekend.

“As a coach, it is extremely difficult to see your players struggle. You want them to play to the best of their ability, game in and game out. Each player is motivated in different ways and as coaches our goal is to be a support system for them,” said Kenney Wood, head coach of the W.R. Myers Rebels varsity girls basketball team, adding no player managed to crack double digits in the game. “All of our players contribute positively to make our team better and we appreciate their effort. This weekend wasn’t an overly feel-good time as we found ourselves behind, having to play catch up. We worked hard and we hopefully grew as a team, learning from our mistakes and becoming better. We flushed the toilet on the weekend and are preparing for a busy next few weeks. Marty, Brandon and myself are looking forward to finishing off with some tough league games and going into zones playing our best basketball.”

The Rebels started its tournament run with a 54-47 win over Charles Spender Mavericks.

Austen Robbins has 16 points to go with 12 rebounds. Lauren Steed added 11 points.

The Rebels were bumped to the bronze-medal game after a tight 61-57 loss to St. Francis Xavier.

Langley Moser had 12 points and Robbins had the double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds. Steed and Dani Wright both had 10 points.

Early last week, the Rebels managed to avenge a Southern Alberta High School Girls Basketball League loss by beating Catholic Central Cougars 89-72.

Kitawna Sparks had 31 points to go with 14 rebounds. Wright had 14 points to go with 10 rebounds. Alex Haller had 17 points and Robbins had 11 points.

“After losing in overtime to the Cougars earlier this season, we knew what we had to do to fix that. We came out quite strong in the first and second quarters and were able to build a lead that we never gave up,” said Wood. “Marty, Brandon and I had spoken to the team about a couple of things we could do better. One was take care of the ball and two, move the ball more efficiently up the floor. We were able to do this a little better and it gave us the edge we needed that we didn’t have the last time we played the Cougars.”

The junior varsity Rebels girls basketball team plays Winston Churchill Griffins on the road on Friday. The whole Rebels basketball program plays Raymond on Feb. 26 on the road and returns home to play Medicine Hat Kwahommies Feb. 28 with junior varsity at 6 p.m. and varsity to follow at 7:45 p.m.