Rebels top St. Stephens for another conference win

The Riverside Rebels won one and lost one last week, falling to Burlington 55-34 Friday before capturing the one they had to have Saturday with a 75-70 win over St. Stephens, a Class 1A Northwest Conference opponent.

Coach Scott Winters said of the Burlington game, “They are a really solid defensive team and their tight man defense caused us some problems. Our guards had a hard time seeing the floor, shooting, and feeding the ball into the post.” 

Winters called it a learning experience, one that showed his team where improvement will be needed moving forward. 

“I was pleased that we continued to work hard on the defensive end even though it was frustrating to the guys that we couldn’t score the way we wanted to,” Coach Winters remarked. 

On Saturday the Rebels hosted the St. Stephens Eagles and that was a much closer game throughout. They started slowly, but stuck with it, had a great third quarter and kept up the pressure to pull out the five-point win. 

“Our defense in the second half caused a lot of frustration for St. Stephens and led to transition baskets for us,” Winters said. “We had several guys come up big for us offensively and defensively.” 

Eli Jensen came off the bench and had his highest scoring varsity game of the season with 10. Avery Clifford had a big game and Ryder Kozisek was able to score by getting a lot of drives to the basket. 

Hyson Hill was a nightmare for the St. Stephens guards, applying pressure every time the Eagles brought it up the floor. 

“It was a big conference win for us after we had lost to them last time we played, so I was pleased with the effort and determination we showed throughout the game,” Coach Winters said. 

The Rebels have three games this week.  They play in Greybull tonight at 7 p.m., host Ten Sleep Friday at 6 p.m.and travel to Shoshoni for a 3 p.m. contest Saturday. 

Burlington 11 19 13 12 – 55

Riverside   2   9   3 20 – 34

RIVERSIDE – Hyson Hill 0-4 2-2 2, Kenneth Mcclure 0-0 0-0 0, Brenden Powell 0-1 0-0 0, Matthew Brown 0-0 0-0 0, Paul Stone 1-7 1-3 3, Jon Mendenhall 0-0 0-0 0, Lane Owen 0-0 0-0 0, Gavyn Cervantes 1-3 0-0 2, Avery Clifford 3-6 0-2 6, Wyatt Daly-Patterson 3-11 3-10 9, Ryder Kozisek 5-17 0-2 12, Eli Jensen 0-0 0-0 0, Mason Brown 0-0 0-0 0. 

3 POINT GOALS –Ryder Kozisek 2. REBOUNDS – Riverside 25 (Ryder Kozisek 7) STEALS – Riverside 6 (Kozisek 3). TURNOVERS – Riverside 22

St Stephens 19 25 13 13 – 70

Riverside 14 16 28 17 – 75

RIVERSIDE – Hyson Hill 5-14 1-4 11, Kenneth Mcclure 0-0 0-0 0, Brenden Powell 0-0 1-2 2, Matthew Brown 0-0 0-0 0, Paul Stone 1-8 0-2 2, Jon Mendenhall 0-0 0-0 0, Lane Owen 0-0 0-0 0, Gavyn Cervantes 0-1 0-0 0, Avery Clifford 7-15 5-10 19, Wyatt Daly-Patterson 3-5 0-0 6, Ryder Kozisek 10-21 3-4 25, Eli Jensen 3-5 3-4 10, Mason Brown 0-0 0-0 0.

3 POINT GOALS –Ryder Kozisek 2, Eli Jensen. REBOUNDS – Riverside 31 (Avery Clifford 7) STEALS – Riverside 15 (Paul Stone 4). TURNOVERS – Riverside 19.