Photo by Brennen Rupp MCC’s Mason Woldt puts up a shot during their game against Heron Lake-Okabena on Friday. The Rebels defeated the Wildcats 83-42

SLAYTON – The Murray County Central Rebels used an early run against Heron Lake-Okabena to set the tempo for the game on Friday evening. The Rebels went on a 13-0 run in the early stages of the game to open up a 15-4 lead over the Wildcats. That run helped the Rebels defeat the Wildcats 83-42.

“We talked about that,” MCC coach Tim Bobeldyk said. “That’s what we wanted to do. We wanted to set the pace. We wanted to get a faster pace going. Our defense stepped up. We got some nice transition baskets of our defense. Offensively we just ran our patterns really well. We are finding each other. We are making the game simple.”

Nate Everson started the run for the Rebels by knocking down a 3-pointer to give MCC a 5-4 lead. It was the first of four 3-pointers that the junior would knock down in the first half for the Rebels.

“He needed a night like this,” Bobeldyk said. “He kind of struggled the last few games. I like us Nate as one of our offensive leaders. This is what he needed. Hopefully it will be snowballing for him and he’ll be able to keep it going.”

With the Rebels holding a 30-20 lead, Tyler Groves converted a 3-point play to put MCC up 33-20. The 3-point play from Groves started a 9-0 run for the Rebels.

Following a 3-pointer from the Wildcats, Everson knocked down his third 3-pointer of the first half to put MCC up 42-23. A few moments later Everson knocked down his fourth 3-pointer to put MCC up 45-25. At the half the Rebels led HLO 47-27.

Justin Benda opened the second half by scoring the first four points for the Rebels to give MCC a 51-27 lead. Everson knocked down his fifth 3-pointer of the game to put MCC up 54-27.

The Rebels switched to zone in the second half and held the Wildcats to 15 second half points. Bobeldyk said his team takes pride in playing stingy defense.

“We wanted to change things up,” he said. “We went to a zone in the second half to practice some things. We held them to 10 points for most of the second half there. We take pride in that. We told them that they couldn’t let up defensively.”

Everson finished the game with 23 points and seven assists. Spencer Wajer finished with 14 points. Mason Woldt scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Benda reached double figures with 10 points.

With the victory the Rebels improved to 10-5 overall. They’ve now won six of their last eight games, including three straight. They’ll look to pick up their fourth straight win on Thursday against Mountain Lake Area.

“We are going over our patterns and looking for our teammates,” Bobeldyk said. “We’ve been really stressing ball control and good offensive possessions. We’ve been limiting our turnovers in the last few games and it’s really shown.”

HLO 27 15 42

MCC 47 36 83

SCORING: MCC (Everson 23; Wajer 14; Mason Woldt 13; Benda 10; Groves 5).

REBOUNDING: MCC (Mason Woldt 8; Groves 6).

ASSISTS: MCC (Everson 7; Wajer, Aanenson 2).

BLOCKS: MCC (Groves, Wendorff 2).