Second half surge propels Midland past Iowa

IOWA – With a number of key players in foul trouble in a back-and-forth contest, William Stanley’s Midland Rebels needed someone to step up in a big way Monday evening.
That someone turned out to be Anthony Massey.
The sophomore entered the game off the bench and poured in 11 points in the second half to spark a rally that helped lead the Rebels to a 54-49 victory over the host Yellow Jackets.
“Anthony struggled in the last game and went 1-for-7 from the floor, so that’s been his name all week long, Mr. 1-for-7,” said Stanley, whose team improved to 9-3 on the season.
“But today, he kind of picked it up. He stepped up and knocked down some big shots and had some nice head fakes and just went around people.”
With Midland down 32-25 early in the third quarter, Massey drove the lane twice and hit back-to-back shots. Then, after a Griffin Hains putback, Massey spotted up in the corner and drilled a 3-pointer to cap a 9-0 run that gave the Rebels a 34-32 lead with just over three minutes to go in the frame.
Massey added four more points in the fourth quarter, but the key in the final frame was Midland’s  free throw shooting. Hains and Dagan Patin each knocked down a pair of freebies down the stretch to seal the victory.
“The past few games, we haven’t been shooting free throws well at all. But tonight, we were able to knock them down,” said Stanley, whose team went 10-for-11 from the charity stripe.
The success at the strip helped offset a swarming Yellow Jacket defense that forced the Rebels into an uncharacteristic 17 turnovers. Eight of those turnovers were in the second quarter and two occurred in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter.
“We tried really hard to give the game away,” said Stanley of the turnovers. “I mean, they (Iowa) can guard and they really got after us.”
Another plus was the fact the Iowa, playing its first game of the season, went cold from the floor, making just four of 17 attempts from beyond the arc.
“That is a good team and they are going to win a lot of games this year,” said Stanley of Iowa. “If they make those 3-point shots that they took, especially early on, we wouldn’t have won the game; we would have been playing from behind a lot, way more than what we played from.”
With the Yellow Jackets misfiring in the first half, Patin kept the Rebels in the game by dropping in 12 of his game-high 18 points in the first two frames. He also grabbed 10 rebounds and picked up five steals on the night.
Dylan Cormier added eight points and six rebounds and Hains had six points, four steals and two assists. Ty Breaux also came in off the bench and contributed five points. Dylan Boudreaux, who has limited due to foul trouble, scored four and Tyler Bonnie had two.
Cortlon Caesar and Darius Daniels led the Yellow Jackets with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Lady Rebels fall short
IOWA – A slow start put the Midland Lady Rebels in a deep hole Monday in their non-district matchup at Iowa.
The Lady Rebels shot just 32 percent from the floor and trailed by as many as 15 in the fourth quarter before a late rally fell just short in a 42-37 loss.
“In the second half, they got us in transition and we just didn’t do a good job of stopping No. 12 on the break,” said MHS coach Amanda Fontenot of Iowa’s Arianna Dargin, who scored a game-high 28 points. “And the other thing is that we didn’t shoot the ball well. We shot 35 percent from the field and we were just 2-for-19 from the 3-point line. If we are going to shoot that many 3s, more than two have to go in.
“It was the transition game and us just not putting the ball in the hole.”
Despite the subpar shooting performance, the Lady Rebels trailed by just two (17-15) at the half before the Lady Yellow Jackets opened it up in the third quarter.
Iowa outscored Midland 12-5 in the third quarter and went on an 8-2 run to start the fourth to take a 37-22 advantage with 4:37 left.
Andrekia Allen sparked Midland’s late rally with a 3-pointer as the Lady Rebels went on a 15-5 run.
“I’m proud of the way that we made that effort in the fourth quarter but at the same time, we shouldn’t have gotten ourselves in that predicament in the first place,” said Fontenot. “We should have had that intensity the whole game. I am proud that we came back like that but it is still disappointing to drop that game.”
Nicole Kraut and Kristen Breaux paced the Lady Rebels with 14 and 13 points, respectively. Brooke Comeaux added five points, Allen had three and Hannah Credeur finished with two.
Both the Rebels and Lady Rebels will be in action again on Friday when they travel to Kaplan to take on the Pirates in a doubleheader.