SLAYTON — Coming off a six-win season and the loss of some impactful seniors, the Murray County Central girls basketball team made big strides forward in the 2025-26 season. The Rebels more than doubled their win total and reached their first subsection championship game in 20 years to cap off a season to remember.

“Going into the year, there was a lot of uncertainty. We had lost three or four seniors that contributed, but we knew we had some good contributors coming back,” MCC head coach Lucas Freeman said, noting the return of leading scorer Ava Deacon offsetting many of the other Red Rock Conference teams returning their key players. “We knew there was a lot of talent coming back, and I think that proved to be kind of the right expectation because everything was pretty hard in the conference. We were fortunate to really finish the year strong, but we didn’t have any self-imposed expectations. Just wanted to try to play our best basketball, and I think we certainly did that.”

Deacon again led the Rebels in scoring this year, averaging a team-high 15.2 points per game with 3.7 rebounds. What made her play over the course of the season particularly impressive was her defensive effort, however, averaging 5.9 steals per game to break the program’s single-season record.

“I think it raised everybody’s defensive level. She’s a really good on-ball defender and really just has a nose for it,” Freeman said. “It helped everybody else just be a little bit more aggressive because we knew that Ava was going to be able to really defend the ball well. A lot of people had some really good defensive numbers, but she certainly got the engine going on the defensive end, which led to a lot of her offense.”

As a team, the Rebels’ tenacious defense was one of their calling cards. MCC averaged 18.4 steals per game as a unit, and their defensive tenacity led to them limiting their opponents to 47.5 points per game over the course of the season. Reese Gilbertson also supplemented the defense with 3.2 steals per game, and Calleigh Doeden and Kate Blankenship each averaged more than two.

While the defensive strengths are nothing new, the Rebels made some tweaks to be more zone-oriented this season, Freeman said. He added that he felt his team’s offense coming into its own down the stretch of the season really helped them reach new highs.

“Once you get to the end of the season, that really comes down to being able to score the basketball, and I thought we really shot the basketball well toward the end of the year,” Freeman said. “That was really a big difference in us going from 7-9 at the end of January to rattling off six straight [wins] to end the regular season and eight of nine to finish the year.”

MCC’s late-season success culminated in a 15-11 record, a big step up from last year’s 9-18 finish. The Rebels lost their regular-season finale against Hills-Beaver Creek, but still earned a No. 3 seed in the Section 3A South bracket after finishing last year as the No. 7 seed.

Beyond the regular season, MCC also made postseason strides. The Rebels fell in the quarterfinals of last year’s section tournament, but after earning a bye to avoid the pigtail, MCC defeated Edgerton 51-44 in the subsection quarterfinals and Adrian/Ellsworth 59-43 in the semifinals to break new ground and advance to the South championship.

“It was a really fulfilling year and the girls really accomplished a lot,” Freeman said. “That’s our most wins we’ve had in I think about 15 years, and the first time getting out of the quarterfinals in I think seven or eight years, so certainly a lot of accomplishments that they deserve to be proud of.”

Facing off against top-seeded Hills-Beaver Creek in the subsection championship game, the Rebels gave the Patriots all they could handle. MCC lost 48-40, but MCC’s defense limited the Patriots to 30% shooting from the field in the game and MCC led 20-13 at halftime.

“There was certainly disappointment that the season was over, but I think a lot of girls had a lot of fulfillment that they were able to really put together a really nice season, work hard together and come up with some big wins at the end of the year,” Freeman said. “I think most were just sad [after the game] because they weren’t going to be around this team anymore, and I certainly fell in that category as well, but it was pretty emotional.”

Kat Miller, Doeden and Gilbertson all made strong offensive contributions with 9.1, 8.3 and 8.0 points per game, respectively. Doeden was also the leader of the team’s efforts on the glass, averaging 6.2 rebounds per game while Blankenship, Miller and Gilbertson grabbed more than five each.

MCC graduates a group of seniors that includes Deacon, Blankenship, Doeden and Rachael Huso.

“It’s a group that’s been through a lot. As freshmen they won six games… to raise it all the way to the level we were at this year, I’m just super proud of them and super grateful that they got that opportunity, because they certainly deserved it,” Freeman said. “All those girls really played some significant roles for us throughout the year, and we’re certainly going to miss them going forward, but super happy they got to experience all the success they did this year.”