The MCS girl's basketball team captured their second tournament win of the year in Indian Head last weekend.
The Cobras won the round-robin draw with a record of 3-0 after victories over Indian Head, Assiniboia and Weyburn.
The opening game was against the Weyburn Eagles. The Cobras had lost a match with the Eagles earlier in the season; one of only two losses for MCS.
Melville avenged the loss with a 64-53 win. The Cobras came out to a fast start putting up 21 first quarter points to Weyburn's 10. The lead grew to 37-19 at the half. In the second half, the starting unit for Melville pushed the lead to 22 points and the second unit played well to preserve an 11 point victory for the Cobras.
"We were not at our best when we lost to Weyburn earlier in the year. It was obvious that we were focussed and determined to make up for that loss. Our fast break was clicking and resulted in some quick scores. It was all started by solid rebounding from Akon Beny, Cassandra Sullivan and Kelsi Rieger."
"The only negative for us in that game was we had Amanda Auchstaetter go down in the second quarter with an ankle injury. She does a great job on defence and runs the floor well. We are hoping she gets back in 3-4 weeks as she is a Grade 12 and a starter."
In game two, Melville was matched up against the Assiniboia Rockets. Once again, the Cobras were off to a running start and had a 20-8 lead after the first quarter. Kelsi Rieger was able to find Janelle Rieger in the early going and the two sisters scored 33 of the 36 first half points for the Cobras.
In the second half, the scoring came from a variety of players with Cassandra Sullivan scoring 7, Amanda Lowe with 6, Akon Beny with 6 and a few other players scoring a basket each. The Cobras scored 64 points and held Assiniboia to 31 in the victory.
"Defensively we played very played well. We kept their offence from getting into a rhythm by playing man to man and pressuring their guards. Once again we rebounded well and kept the taller Assiniboia team from scoring easy put backs."
The last game against Indian Head was a lower scoring affair that MCS hung on to win 49-40. The Cobras once again lead the entire way; 11-6 after the first quarter, 29-19 at half and 36-27 going into the last quarter. Janelle Rieger led the Cobras with 23 points, Kelsi Rieger added 14 points and added 6 assists, Akon Beny had 10 rebounds and 5 blocked shots and Cassandra Sullivan had 8 rebounds and 3 assists to help MCS get the win.
"I am proud of our effort this past weekend. This team plays hard every game from tip-off to the last whistle. To play an up-tempo style you have to be willing to sprint and work harder to get down the floor than the defence and we usually manage to do so. We also have an experienced point guard in Kelsi Rieger who can make passes that lead to those fast break scores."
