Rebels Outlast Rails in Overtime

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

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Dec 3

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

MOOSE LAKE- The Moose Lake-Willow River Rebels entered this season with a lot of unknowns. Losing several seniors off of last season’s team and only having one returning starter it was going to be a growing season. But on Friday the Rebels grew up in a hurry as they came back from being five points down late to defeat the Rails of Proctor 50-44 in overtime.

The Rebels jumped out to an early first half lead at 12-3 but the Rails fought back and took the lead late in the first half. Both teams battled back and forth and at the break both teams were tied at 24-24.

“They played tough the entire game,” Head Coach Andrew Miller told Northland Sports Online. “We have things we need to work on and we saw some of those areas tonight.” Miller added “Proctor is a tough scrappy team they played hard and they came at us, I’m happy our young players responded like they did.”

The second half saw the Rails come out strong, took the lead and held on to it for most of the second half. Proctor led by five points with less than two minutes to play, but the Rebels fought their way back into the game. Eighth Grader Adri Jusczak made a free throw with 11 seconds remaining to tie the game at 44-44.

Proctor had chances as a shot put up with seconds to go missed the mark and Moose Lake-Willow River had one final shot with a little over one second remaining but the shot missed its mark also. The Rebels came out strong in the overtime period with Maddy Adamczak leading the way with two quick baskets that sealed the Rebels win.

“We had our chances tonight,” Head Coach Teresa Nyberg told Northland Sports Online. “The girls played hard and it was nice to see them never quit.” In the overtime period the Rails had three starters foul out of the game as the Rebels outscored Proctor 6-0 in overtime.

Adamczak led all scorers with 26 points on the night, Samantha Johnson added 10, Shelby Halverson had 5, Adri Jusczak finished with 4, Olivia Bennett and Alyssa Jusczak added 2 each, and Shaeyln Halverson ended with 1 point.

Proctor was led by Aubrey Knox, who finished with 11 points, Laura Talarico and Micayla Westendorf each had 8, Jamie Polaski added 6, Lindsey Verhel finished with 5, Cassie Ericson pitched in with 4, and Kyra Harty closed out the scoring with 2 points.

The Rebels improve to 2-0 on the season and will play at Aitkin on Tuesday night. The Rails fall to 0-2 and are in action again on Thursday night when they host the Virginia Blue Devils.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com