Some people feel like they need to go on a diet after Thanksgiving. But the South Spencer girls basketball team was still plenty hungry. In fact, they were craving a tasty victory over PAC rival and defending 1A state champion Tecumseh.
The Lady Rebels satisfied their hunger pains by combining a pivotal third quarter surge with plenty of grit to gobble up the Class 1A, No. 6 ranked Braves 58-49 last Monday night in Reo. To say South Spencer coach Brent Mathew was pleased with his squad’s triumph over Tecumseh — the Lady Rebels’ first over the Braves since 2007 — would be an understatement.
“This was the signature win we were looking for. We had some kids who just willed us to win,” said the Lady Rebel boss. “We felt like we had a game plan that would work against them but coming off a holiday, you never know if your shooting is going to be on or off. We practiced on Friday and Saturday, but this was a tough time to play. These kids just showed how tough they were tonight especially not being at full strength [starting guard Sally Shelton missed the game because of illness]. I can’t say enough about their effort.”
“We have six seniors, and we knew that we needed to make this game count,” explained senior guard Trinity Britton. “They’ve beaten us [our senior class] three years in a row and this was our year if we were going to do it. We wanted to make sure we got it done. We went in with confidence, knowing we could do it, but we also knew it was going to be a hard game. We just had to give it everything that we had one final time against them.”
Britton and junior guard Molly Schulte certainly did. Schulte finished with a game-high 18 points, while Britton contributed 17.
“Tecumseh is in the upper echelon of the conference. If the kids didn’t know before, they now know what they’re capable of,” concluded Mathew. “This has to be a great confidence booster as we move forward.”
Check out all the details of this game and more in this week’s edition of the Spencer County Leader!
Photos by Sierra Bruggeman
