Rebels win a thriller in home opener

PROSPERITY, S.C. — The Rebels provided plenty of heat on a cold December night in their home opener to start the season. Mid-Carolina won a thriller 51-50 against Saluda on Tuesday, Dec. 3rd to tip-off their 2024-25 boys’ varsity basketball season.

Mid-Carolina found themselves in a tough battle against a scrappy Saluda team. The Tigers took an early lead and kept it for majority of the first half. They finished the first quarter leading 11-6 over the Rebels.

The Rebels looked out of sync on the offensive of the floor for a quarter and half due to the constant ball pressure from Saluda’s guards. Mid-Carolina got things going though about midway through the second quarter. They closed out the first on a 11-3 run and took a 19-17 lead into halftime.

Mid-Carolina’s senior guard Kaden Myers really start to pick up his play in the second half. He finished the first half with one point from a free throw and scored 18 of his 19 total points in the second half.

Myers got things going with a strong drive to the basket and then knocked down a huge three-pointer on the very next possession. He also had three trips to the free throw line and made three-of-six attempts to give him eight total points in the third quarter alone.

Despite the big quarter for their senior guard, the Rebels still found themselves trailing 32-30 going into the fourth quarter.

Junior big man Jaquon McKinney picked up his play in the second half too. He scored only five points in the first half, but scored 11 of his 16 total points in the second half all in the fourth quarter.

They needed every bucket from McKinney because the visiting Tigers held their biggest lead of the game, 43-35 with about five minutes left to play.

Saluda first jumped out to a 39-32 lead to start the quarter, but Myers knocked down a huge three-point basket to stop the bleeding. Then, the Tigers margin grew again and forced Rebels’ head coach Kevin Winch to call a timeout.

The home team went on a run after the timeout fueled behind their new found one-two punch on the wing and inside. McKinney scored three consecutive buckets on the inside and Myers continued to knock down big shot after big a shot during their 11-3 run to even the score at 46-46.

“Quon has really developed. This is his first year on varsity and we’ve been trying to get him physical and just playing to his full ability. He really showed that tonight and really took a big step by making some big shots down the stretch. I am really proud of him for that,” said Winch.

Saluda answered with a huge three-point basket to regain the lead. Then, McKinney scored two clutch inside buckets to give the Rebels a 51-50 lead with about 10 seconds left to play in the game after the Tigers split a pair of free-throws that could’ve potentially gave them a three-point lead.

The visiting Tigers called a timeout to regroup and set up a possible game winning shot. Saluda was able to get the ball inside and get a good look, but missed it and then missed the follow up attempt as time expired.

“There at the end I told them to box and rebound, which we didn’t do[laughing]. It worked out in our favor though. We did a really good job of pressuring the ball after being down early. We forced some turnovers, made them uncomfortable and played a lot of different defenses to give them some different looks. I think our guys did a good job there trying to make things happen on the defensive end but we have to cut down on the fouling,” explained Winch about the team’s last defensive possession of the game.

Mid-Carolina will hit the road to play Aiken on Thursday, Dec. 5th before a tough three-game slate that starts on Dec.9th at home against Woodruff and concludes on Dec.13th with their cross town rivals, Newberry.