By Chris Drummond Murray County Central’s Ava Deacon goes up for a shot against Tracy-Milroy-Balaton’s Jordan Munson (1) in Tuesday’s night action.

TRACY — The Tracy-Milroy-Balaton Panthers girls’ basketball team won their home opener Tuesday night over the Murray County Central Rebels, 63-51.

The win gives the Panthers a (2-0) start to the season.

In the opening half, it was a back-and-forth contest. The Rebels’ stingy defense was on display and it didn’t allow the Panthers to uptempo the game It wasn’t until late in the half that the Panthers would get some separation.

Jordan Munson scored 13 first-half points and Grace Dolan had 10 to pace the Panthers with a halftime lead of 33-26.

In the second half, the Panthers were able to create some distance behind a ferocious press causing the Rebels to commit multiple turnovers. The lead ballooned to 15, 53-38.

However, the Rebels we’re not done.

The Rebels would go on a 13-4 run, trimming the lead to six with under four minutes to play. Although the Rebels continued to fight hard, the Panthers wouldn’t let them get any closer.

Munson finished with a game-high 19 points and 12 rebounds in leading TMB over MCC 63-51. Munson also had seven steals along with seven turnovers. Dolan would finish the game with 12 points.

“I think Tracy’s a real aggressive team,” MCC Rebel head coach Lucas Freeman said. “I thought we did well in some parts and not so well in other parts, especially with five minutes left to go in the game. It is our first game of the year and had some of those early season jitters. Give credit to Tracy but proud of the way my girls fought tonight.”

Abbygail Overman led the Rebels in scoring with 13 points and teammate Jada Hellewell had 12. The Rebels committed a game-high 37 turnovers in the contest.

“Obviously our play was up and down tonight,” TMB head coach Derek Ashbaugh said. “You have to give a ton of credit to MCC for the way they played tonight. They pushed us. I was happy to see us respond. They’re plenty of things for us to work on and now that we can have three days of practice, we will get to work on those and clean it up.”

TMB is now (2-0) and will travel to Cottonwood to play Lakeview next Tuesday. MCC (0-1) will play Friday in their home opener against Adrian-Ellsworth.

Both teams’ first tip is at 7:15 p.m.

MCC

Points: Overman 13; Hellewell 12; McNab 8)

Rebounds: Hellewell 6; McNab 6; Miller 5; Zoey Iverson 5)

Assists: (Miller 4)

TMB

Points: (Munson 19; Dolan 12)

Rebounds: (Munson 12; Swanson 9; Dolan 6)

Assists: Munson (4)