Greg Hollis | [email protected]
PROSPERITY, S.C. — The Lady Rebels has been one of the most dangerous teams in recent years when the second half of the season starts and they were hoping to began to make their late season push starting in their region opener on Friday night. Unfortunately, they came up just short in an intense back-and-forth battle. Mid-Carolina(3-8, 0-1 region 3-AA) fell 54-53 to Columbia(5-7 , 1-0 region 3-AA) at home on Friday, Jan. 9, in their region opener.
The Rebels and Capitals met for the first of two meetings in the high school basketball edition of Friday Night Lights and it was an instant classic of a game.
Columbia came to battle with their hard hats and work boots on Friday looking for an upset after being swept by the Lady Rebels in the 2024-25 season series. The Lady Capitals put on a defensive clinic in the first half. They allowed just 12 points in the first quarter and only eight points in the second quarter.
Mid-Carolina found themselves trailing 30-20 at halftime for the first time against Columbia in quite some time because they didn’t trail at all in their two meetings on last season.
The Lady Rebels would have to depend on a lot of young and inexperienced talent in the second half after their two senior guards battled through foul trouble.
Mid-Carolina started the third quarter on a 4-0 run to cut into the deficit, but Columbia was able to continue to make timely shots and keep their momentum. Senior defensive guard Logann Brooks started to make her impact as the Rebels picked up their defensive pressure and extended it to a full court press. Brooks would get three steals and make to fast break lay-ups. The defensive pressure really benefited Mid-Carolina because they were able to score in transition and not give the Capitals a chance to set up their defense.
Senior guard Brea Boyd had one of her best offensive games so far this season, but it was met with some controversy. Her older brother was thrown out of the game due by a referee after a small verbal altercation. Then, Boyd was handed a technical foul by that same referee while she was shooting free throws. The sequence cost Mid-Carolina some momentum and helped the Capitals.
Regardless, the Lady Rebels went on a 9-0 run following all of that to cut the lead down to just single digits. Mid-Carolina outscored Columbia 22-15 in the third quarter. Senior forward Rielly Winder scored six of her nine total points in the third quarter to help the Rebels. They now trailed 45-42 going into the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter started off with huge made three-pointer from Boyd to tie the game at 45-45. Columbia answered with a 5-0 run to give them back the lead, 50-45. Senior guard Katie Gallman was given her fifth and final foul at the 3:25 mark on the game clock. She was fighting for the ball and given a questionable hand foul during the physical play. Gallman finished the game with just five points and was scoreless in the second and fourth quarters.
Boyd wasn’t done and proceeded to knock down back-to-back three-pointers to keep Mid-Carolina in the game. They now only trailed by one point, 52-51.
The two teams would pick up their defensive pressure and the game remain scoreless for nearly a minute and half of game time. The two teams would exchange buckets to make it a 54-53 game. Boyd then received her fifth foul and fouled out of the game. She scored all 11 of Mid-Carolina’s points in the fourth quarter and finished with a game-high of 25 points.
Mid-Carolina trailed 54-53 with about minute left to play. Neither team could get a basket late, but the Lady Rebels still had a chance to win it with about 25 seconds left on the clock. They were able to get a rebound after a miss, and had a chance to win it but junior guard A’jayla Kibler came up short on a wide open three-point attempt and that sealed it for the Capitals.
“Well, I really didn’t have time to talk to them per se because we didn’t get a timeout. I thought about calling a timeout after the rebound and maybe set something but we didn’t run any offense the whole second half. We tried to get in offensive sets and run our stuff but they just sped us up,” said Rebels’ head coach Gary Wilbanks
He continued, “Then, we were also doing a really good job in the second half of just playing basketball. I thought about calling a timeout to set something but they just don’t really have the experience to go out there to execute something. So, I decided to just let them play. It was kind of a rush shot but it was a good look. She[Kibler] was kind of beating herself up but it’s okay. They will better because of that later on and being in that situation.”
Despite falling short, the Lady Rebels outscored Columbia 33-24 in the second half and held them to just nine points in the fourth quarter.
“Well, they sped us in the first half. We can play like that at times[more free flowing] but we don’t want to really play like that. They sped us and I am hard headed. I was still trying to call sets and we couldn’t get in them and we were turning it over. So, in the second half we just started to play basketball. We got the ball in Brea’s hands more and started to push it up the floor,” said Wilbanks.
“She is getting in better shape now after coming into the season injured and it was nagging her early on. She has looked like the old Brea the last two nights which is huge because she can make plays. She made a bunch a threes and she made plays handling the ball but we have to figure out how to finish.”
Mid-Carolina dropped the region opener and will look to regroup against Chester on the road. The two teams will meet on Tuesday, Jan. 13, at 6:00 p.m. They have now fell to 3-8 on the season and will have four huge region games coming up starting with a rematch of last year’s 3A Quarterfinals against Eau Claire on Jan. 16.
“We have loss a bunch of games like that where we get behind, then rally back to make it close but then we let it slip away at the end. Every game is going to be like that because this region is very close except for one[Clinton] of them and they are the number one team in the state. The rest of us are altogether and we have to figure out how to finish those games and get wins instead of coming up short,” Wilbanks stated.
Reach Greg Hollis @ 803-768-3119 or on X @TheNBOnews