Building a roster that can win on both the JV and varsity levels is the game of chess both North Sunflower Academy basketball coaches are faced with. With only so much talent to go around, JV girls and boys are being asked to compete and contribute on the varsity level, but JV players can only play six quarters in one night. The only problem is two games consists of eight quarters and the Lady Rebels and Rebels have been falling two bits short more often than not. The Lady Rebels have had some close games on each level. Last week, each team hosted the Deer Creek Warriors on Thursday, November 14, and then traveled to Arcola to take on those same Warriors this past Monday, November 18. The Lady Rebel JV team picked up the home win over the Lady Warriors, 30-22 with Taelor Harper leading the way with 20 points. Kaelee DeBower added four while three other Lady Rebels had two each. The Lady Rebel varsity team lost a close one, 33-30 at home. Penny Fulton led the team with 16 points while Carson Scallion chipped in six. “The high school played a really, really tough game but we lost 33-30,” Head Coach Jeff Andrews said. “We've improved tremendously but admittedly, when I saw those Deer Creek girls come out, I said ‘Man, we're going to get beat by about 30’ and we ended up having the lead at halftime. But there again, I've got two of my starting junior high girls playing, starting on the high school, and they didn't have but two quarters because we were such a close junior high game. They had to play all four. Once they went out, we lost it in the fourth quarter.” When they traveled to Arcola, the JV girls “weren't ready to play. We had the lead at halftime again in junior high. Just, I don't know, we just kind of lost it in the second half. We ended up getting beat 31-18. Once we were getting beat, I substituted my players to try to save my girls for the high school game. And the high school game, we lost 35-27. And there again, same thing, lost it in the third quarter, where I couldn't play my two best players. I have to work on a different substitution pattern. I think I'm going to have to split my two girls up. They score all our points. I've been playing them together, but what I think I'm going to do is I'm going to play one of them in the first half and the other one in the second half, and that's going to give me some more scoring options for the second half. You know, I kind of shot all my bullets in the first half and then we started shooting blanks in the second.” Harper again led the team with 13 points in the JV loss. In the Lady Rebels varsity loss, Fulton had 10 points, Harper added nine, and four others had two points apiece. Coach Andrews knows there’s plenty of work to be done on the court and he’s got the time to do it with the Thanksgiving break. The Lady Rebels won’t be back in action until December 9, when they host Humphreys Academy. “I told them it was there for us to take. We just didn't reach and grab it. They have got to learn how to finish it out. I was real pleased with the effort, and I think we had a really good week. I think the girls are really starting to believe that, ‘hey, we can win some games this year.’ I'm glad to see that. We're not going to play again until after Thanksgiving so we're going to get in the gym and try to correct some things. And we've got plenty of time to work on and practice, so I'm glad we got a break from the schedule. We'll take a few days off for Thanksgiving and then get back at it.” On the boys’ side, Head Coach Anthony Rivera got his teams on the court but is trying to figure out the chess game of substitution of JV players. And they are all still looking for that first win. The coach detailed his JV team’s recent outing first. “We played a lot better than we did the first game. First game we turned it over in the second half. This time we limited turnovers. We picked it up in the second quarter and went in the halftime down by four, 20-16,” Coach Rivera said. “And second half was our half until Dylan Patterson fouled out. We had started to make a comeback and then we let it slip away from there. We dropped that one 48-35 at Deer Creek.” Patterson finished with 15 points, 15 rebounds, and right behind him was Adam Haney with eight points and six steals. The varsity had a rough go though. “The varsity, it's trial and error. It's just going to be a lot of growing pains. And Deer Creek jumped out early on us. At halftime, we only had three points,” he said. The Rebels were without Bryce Redwine and Coach Rivera had to dig into his limited bench. “That led to me playing a lot of my junior high guys with the quarter situation where they can only play two quarters if they play the full JV game,” he said. “It’s like moving chess pieces around, trying to put these young guys in a position to be successful against experienced varsity guys, and it's tough. And they have their moments. My younger guys step up as much as they can.” One shining spot for the Rebels is sophomore Omarion Williams. “He finished the night with 15 points and 15 rebounds. He dominated on the boards offensively with putbacks. He’s young and lacks a certain experience for a young guy. He’s got to grow into his body size and role and be used the right way,” Coach Rivera said. The Rebels fell 54-24 and now are looking at the long break before their next game. “For me, it's just an opportunity to work. I'm going to reach out to the Cleveland Warriors AAU team and try to book just a scrimmage against them or something to keep active over the break,” he said. “The break gives me an opportunity to work with the younger guys and detail up some stuff, polish up some stuff with the older guys and try to just be prepared.” That December 9 game will take place at home against Humphreys Academy and Coach Rivera is ready to hear the raucous Rebel home crowd supporting both the Lady Rebels and Rebels. “That'll play a big role to be out in front of our own crowd. We had a good crowd atmosphere when we played against Deer Creek. The fans were chirping back and forth with each other in the student sections, where we had a good basketball atmosphere. That's what you want, man. You want that type of environment for your kids to enjoy and their peers to see them play and things of that nature. I'm just trying to grow it. Grow the program. I have a vision, and I'm trying to let it unfold piece by piece.”
