The Richland Rebel Basketball Team has been having a rough season so far after their close loss to the Campbell Camels and to the Bloomfield Wildcats. But their season has finally turned around after their game on Tuesday, December 11th, against the Marquand-Zion Tigers.
This was a great game for all the players, but it was a remarkable game for senior Richard Forshee (#50) because this was his first game of his final season as a Richland Rebel. Forshee has recently been benched due to torn tendons in his foot that took a couple weeks to officially heal. The Rebels and coaches are glad to have him back on the court. Forshee is building himself back up slowly but surely and scored a total of 10 points during the Marquand-Zion game.
The Rebels started off strong, scoring the first points of the game and holding a fairly large lead over the Tigers during the first quarter. The Tigers had a hard time getting passed the Rebels’ defense and couldn’t seem to hit double digits throughout the first quarter while the Rebels had a total of 35 points.
The second and third quarter were a bit more challenging but the head coach, Matt Cline, told his players to “press” the other team so that defense was continuously harder and harder to push through. With the new defense technique, the Tigers had even more trouble breaking through the Rebels so that they could score.
Throughout the game, the Rebels sunk a lot of free throws and senior Jesse Barnes, in particular, only missed one out of all of his shots, making him the lead scorer of the night. The Rebels had great defense, and one of the contributors to that was senior Tyler Jacobs. Along with defense, the Rebels also had an impressive offense that included sophomores Skyler Harper and Marcus Grayson, who were both close to the top scoring position.
At the end of the fourth quarter, the Rebels took a humongous victory over Marquand-Zion High School, by doubling their points. The final score was 82 to 40, allowing the Rebels to make an official come back for this season. Both coaches believe that this could be a real comeback for the Rebels because it showed the players that they really do have what it takes to pull out a large win like they did on Tuesday.
The fans, coaches, and players are excited about their latest victory and are looking forward to their next game on Friday, December 14th, against the Dexter Bearcats at the new Bearcat Center.
