If the W.R. Myers Rebels varsity girls basketball team’s last week of regular season play is any indication, earning a berth into 3A provincials through zones is going to be a dog fight for the most part.
Two of the Rebels’ three games were against 3A zone opponents and both of them went down to the wire.
The first was a road 48-44 win against Kate Andrews Pride.
“It was a real slugfest. There wasn’t a lot of whistles, but things were pretty physical,” said Kendon Bennett, head coach of the W.R. Myers Rebels varsity girls basketball team as the squad was trailing by four points at half-time. “In the third quarter we came out with a lot of energy. Lauren Peterson turned the whole game around for us. She made a couple of three pointers and foul shots and she just played with a ton of energy. She really lifted our spirits, being a big key turning us around. We scored 23 points in the third quarter. That gave us enough of a cushion scoring more in a quarter than we did in a whole half.”
Gabby Bertoia had 12 points and four rebounds. Peterson hit for three treys on the way to 11 points and Kelsie Wood also had 11 points.
Rebels girls continued on to Magrath on Saturday afternoon in a match that proved just as tough in a 64-62 loss to the Pandas.
“We had an eight-point lead in the third quarter, but we couldn’t hold onto it. We cut it to two with 22 seconds to go and we tried fouling them two or three times to try and get the ball back, but they wouldn’t call it,” said Bennett.
“What do you do, you don’t want to tackle somebody because then they’ll call it intentional. But, there were other things we could have controlled.”
Wood has 22 points with Kelly Hansen having one of her best games of the year with 12 points and three assists. Samantha Terry had 11 points to go with seven rebounds. Bertoia netted 10 points to go with nine rebounds.
“We have a big size advantage inside where we can get in there and get things done,” said Bennett of his Rebels matching up against the Pandas.
Last Wednesday was Senior’s Night for the Rebels as the Grade 12s were thanked for their contributions to the program over the years. Unfortunately, it was not a send off to remember on the court as W.R. Myers suffered a 82-54 loss against LCI Clippers.
“They played a tight man-to-man defence and we don’t see that too often. We haven’t been a great shooting team, so a lot of teams play zone on us. They are a lot faster than us, and they pressured us,” said Bennett.
“When we did get the ball down the court we got it inside and scored quite a bit, but our guards didn’t contribute a lot of points.”
“You have to be able to handle the pressure and we struggled with it a bit in the first half where they were able to score a bunch of easy baskets. We cleaned it up in the second half, but then they seemed to make every shot, it was one of those games.”
Woods’ last high school game on her home court, netted her 20 points and 14 rebounds. Bertoia had 16 points and Terry had eight points.  
Despite the loss to the Pandas, the Rebels go in as the number-four seed in 3A zones at Kate Andrews School against the Pandas with a 5 p.m. tilt on Friday.
Depending on how the zone ranks where Winston Churchill, McCoy and Eagle Butte look like they could be top-six teams in the province, the zone tournament could net three berths into provincials.
If the Rebels win, they play McCoy at R.I. Baker at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
“That will be good for all of us, because we’ll have to play (zone first-ranked) McCoy in the second round if we can get by Magrath,” said Bennett.
“ I think with all the teams in the zone — McCoy is a couple of steps ahead of us, but either team can win on any given night. You are going to have to play well. Your best players have to be your best players and you are going to have to have some role players step up and play their best game of the year to get things done.”