Rebels girls take third at Kate Andrews tourney

W.R. Myers Rebels varsity girls basketball team earned an early Christmas present with a third-place finish at the Kate Andrews tournament the weekend before Christmas as the team looks to get healthy.

Playing without Hayley Lepard all tournament long who is on the mend, the Rebels started its tournament run struggling somewhat, but still gutted out a 48-35 win over Holy Trinity.

Kelly Hansen had 12 points and Nina Gansner had 10 points. Sam Terry chipped in nine.

“We really struggled in this game — shots weren’t dropping and we missed about 15 lay-ups. The game was 31-26 at half-time, it could have easily been a 20-point difference at half-time. Good game to win, especially since we didn’t play very well, but kept fighting and won because of our hard work,” said Kenney Wood, head coach of the W.R. Myers Rebels varsity girls basketball team.

It was a nail-biter of a game that pushed the Rebels to the third-place match, as the Magrath Pandas were able to get some revenge from earlier in league play in beating the Rebels 67-64 in overtime.

The Rebels once again lost a player to injury as Gansner bowed out at half-time.

Katessa Gross poured in 15 points and Terry and Caroline Steinborn both had 14 points apiece. Sadie Lund hit for 10 points while hauling in eight rebounds.

“We knew Magrath would be out for some redemption from the last game. We started off very good and continued to play well through the second quarter,” said Wood.

“The third quarter we had some difficulty scoring and let them back into the game and the fourth quarter was a real battle. We had a number of chances to put the game away but just couldn’t get it done. Fourth-quarter foul shooting did us in going 1-for-14. We got a bit tight in the fourth and made too many mental errors. We are still learning how important it is be a smart player.”

The third-place game was pure domination as the Rebels easily handled Immanuel Christian 72-31.

Lund had the double-double of 19 points and 13 rebounds. Steinborn had 12 points.

“Brandon (Bullock) and I told the girls that this third-place game was important to win and we couldn’t let the disappointment of the loss to Magrath in the semifinal affect how we played our next game,” said Wood.  

“The girls took this to heart and really came out strong and put the game out of reach at half-time, and still kept playing hard and only allowed 14 points to be scored on them in the whole second half. Nina played but on a sore ankle where she showed some toughness. She got her ankle tapped up and played through some pain.”

The Pandas went on to win the tournament easily by 30 points.  

“Quite a few people mentioned that our game with them should have been the final, it was very exciting,” said Wood.

The Rebels have a bit of a layoff until its Brooks tournament.

“It will be nice to have a few weeks of practice only.”