Rebels survive Regional Round thriller

It was the kind of game that left you sitting on the edge of your seat, hoarse and trying to catch your breath.

“That was a little bit closer than I wanted it to be,” said William Stanley, Rebels coach. “[The game] was a track meet, we were running back and forth, back and forth.

“We couldn’t stop them on penetration, they just bulldozed their way in there. 

“We could get a rebound the first half, a defensive rebound, I think we let them get six or seven offensive boards just in the first half and they scored on those put-backs. That hurt us a lot.”

Adjustments proved to be key for Midland throughout the game as Stanley attributes a lot of the Rebels’ victory to the team’s switch to a spread, forcing Glenmora to make what ended up being a fatal change.

“They were in that zone defense, that bothered us a lot,” said Stanley. “We didn’t move the ball really well against that zone.

“When we got that six-point lead going into the fourth quarter – they cut it to four eventually – but I went spread and forced him (Wildcats Coach Clay Broussard) to go man, and that’s when we started to get a lot of our offensive stuff cooking.

“So when they went man, they kind of shot themselves in the foot, I think. They played man-to-man in Fairview, and that’s how we beat them.”

Glenmora’s speed proved to be its greatest ally, followed swiftly by its rebounding, forcing Midland into a basket-for-basket brawl in the Regional Round game.

For most of the first quarter, the Rebels had to rely on answering the Wildcat’s moves. The difference remaining a Glenmora three-point shot in the first possession.

The Rebels clawed their way back, however, eventually meeting the Wildcats’ 12 points with a minute and a half left in the frame and going ahead on a late jumper on the final possession of the first.

The second quarter told an even different tale. Midland came out on fire, scoring on four straight possessions and preventing Glenmora from answering. Up 10 points with 4:12 remaining, however, the Wildcats knocked down a shot. Then, Glenmora would score on four straight possessions to tie the game at 22 with 2:25 remaining.

The missed chance to put the game out of reach gave Midland another “track meet” of sorts to contend with as it would enter the half up 26-25.

“Well, turnovers, first off, and I call an airball a turnover, I think we shot two airballs; just settling for outside shots, but they were playing that zone, they were packing it,” said Stanley. “We tried to go two guard, which we were spreading the ball out, and it did kind of spread them out, we were getting a little bit, but then we just weren’t getting enough movement.

“A lot of [the shots] were wide open, those were the shots we were making all year that we should have made. I had to tell the guys to stop shooting and stop settling for those outside shots, and try to get more on the attack.”

In one more quarter of blazing speed, Glenmora and Midland would battle back and forth, the Wildcats regaining the lead with 3:14 left in the third and the Rebels retaking it with 2:31 left. The quarter ended with Midland up BY six points.

In the final quarter, the Rebels came out ready to end it. After the Wildcats scored two points to open the quarter, three straight possessions would end with Devin Gautreaux knocking down three shots, upping Midland’s lead to eight. And, though Glenmora would hit two more shots in the frame, Midland would knock down five and the Rebels would leave victorious.

Gautreaux would lead all Rebels with 20 points, eight of which were scored in the fourth quarter. Randy Primeaux and Traven Guidry added 10 points each; Dylan Boudreaux had eight; and Taatum Rubin and sixth man Dagan Patin each had six.

One Wildcat hit double digits Tuesday night, Cody Ashworth, who scored 19 of Glenmora’s 46 points.

Up next, Midland will host five-seed Simsboro, who won Tuesday night 67-59, at 7 p.m. Friday.