By Skip Hunter –

Basketball fans had been looking forward to last Friday’s boys basketball game between Murray County Central and Southwest Minnesota Christian. The Eagles went into the game perched atop the Red Rock Conference with a 5-0 mark. The Rebels were but 1 game behind at 4-1.

The Rebels have often played the Eagles tough, employing a zone defense to frustrate the Eagles’ inside game. It was the Eagles who did the frustrating Friday night, holding the Rebels scoreless for the first 8 minutes of the second half on their way to a 61-42 victory. In the RRC the Eagles hold a 1 game lead over WWG, whose only loss was to the Eagles.

Madelyn Rozeboom made her fourth appearance in the last two weeks beautifully singing the national anthem. Cole Walhof grabbed the opening tip and went right to work with a bucket. MCC scored the next 2 buckets with a deuce and a trey. The Eagles came back with a drive to the hoop for Micah Schaap and a Carter Van Hulzen deuce. After MCC scored on a free throw, Hunter Vander Haar got the pass to Van Hulzen for the first of his seven treys for the night. MCC cut the lead to 9-8 with a bucket before Vander Haar was fouled while shooting; he made 1 of 2 shots.

The visitors came up with a pair of treys to take a 14-10 lead, but Van Hulzen caught a pass from Walhof beyond the arc and scored. After another Rebel triple, Zach Prins got the ball to VanHulzen who scored, was fouled, and made the awarded free throw. Soon afterward Van Hulzen was fouled and made both ends of a 1 and 1 situation. After MCC took the lead again, Dawson Rieck passed to Walhof for 2 points, and Schaap cashed in on the first half of a 1 and 1. After the Rebels put 4 points on the board, VanderHaar made a nice interior pass to Schaap for a bucket followed by another Schaap deuce to make the score 25-23 for the Eagles. MCC drained a trey, but Schaap tied the score by going to the line and making 1 of 2 as the half came to an end with the score knotted at 26.

As was mentioned earlier, the Eagles went on a 9-0 run to start the second half in the span of 8 minutes 31 seconds. Vander Haar scored first after swiping the ball. Schaap hit a little 8-foot shot for 2 more points. Vander Haar passed to Van Hulzen located near the basket for 2 more points. After Vander Haar scored again, the Rebels called a time out. The final point of the run was a Van Hulzen free throw. After an MCC made charity toss, Jacob Raak aided VanderHaar with a pass. The burly low post player was fouled and went 1 for 2 from the stripe. Shortly after that, Schaap pilfered the ball, steamed down court, and threw down a two handed dunk. MCC attempted to get something going with a trey, but VanderHaar rebounded his own miss and scored to give the Eagles a 40-30 lead with 7:17 remaining.