McKENZIE (October 15) — McKenzie Middle School basketball got underway last Monday with a pair of wins over Dresden at home.
The girls’ contest started off slow with neither team getting a basket until nearly two minutes into the first period. After that the points came in bunches especially for McKenzie, who jumped out to an 8-2 lead and led 10-3 at the end of the first period.
In the second period, Dresden began scoring and closed the margin to 14-10 with three minutes to go in the second period but went cold over the final three minutes while McKenzie added 5 unanswered points to lead 19-10 at half.
In the third period, the Lady Rebels hit back-to-back three pointers to open a 25-12 lead in the first two minutes. Dresden closed the margin to 34-23 by the end of the period.
Dresden kept whittling away at McKenzie’s lead in the final period but the Lady Rebels maintained a 9-12 point lead through the period with the happy final being 43-34.
Savannah Davis led McKenzie with 18 points followed by Katie Prather with 10 points. Briley Auvenshine and Mikaela Reynolds both had 6 points each while Aaliyah Teague added 3.
The Rebels came out hotter than the girls opening up an 11-0 lead before Dresden’s boys even scored a basket. They led 17-5 at the end of 1 period. McKenzie kept the pressure on and opening a 32-11 lead and led 34-14 at the half.
In the second half, both teams played everyone on their benches as McKenzie ended up with a 40-23 win.
A number of Rebels scored in the contest led by Zay Webber with 12 points and Marquez Taylor with 8. Bryson Steele had 6 points while Etijay Tharpe had 5 points. Christopher Beck added 3 while Stafford Roditis, Zack Aird, and Bryant Haynes all added two points each.