The Western Yell County Wolverines pulled off quite the upset on Monday, February 13th by slaying the Mountainburg Dragons. If the Wolverines hope was to roll through the 2A-4 District Tournament as a Cinderella Story, then they were well on their way. Standing in the way of that feel good story though was a JC Westside Rebels team that was made up of giants. Could the Wolverines take down both dragons and giants in just two days? Not if the Rebels had anything to say about it.
Both Western Yell and JC Westside went straight to the boards with powerful board buckets to start the game. The Wolverines then swapped their rough and gruff power game and caught JC Westside off guard for a pair of three-point sniper shots to gain a fast 8-2 lead over the Rebels. The fast paced high and flying match up was already shaping up to be exactly what everyone expected as both teams showed off their talents. The Rebels were able to go on a 6-0 run with offensive rebounds and put backs to tie the game up 10-10. Western Yell broke the tie though and kept the nets hot with another three-point shot to close the first quarter ahead of JC Westside 13-10.
JC Westside scored on two rebound put backs to start the second quarter to come within one point of the Wolverines, but Western Yell shook it off an went back ahead with a drive straight to the basket. The Rebels bounced right back again and tied the game up at 16-16 by putting in the work in the paint. The power game of the bigger Rebels was starting to payoff for the Rebels, so they stuck with it and it paid off with JC Westside taking their first lead of the night with an 18-16 score. Western Yell kept their long-range shooting going, but their success rate was low allowing JC Westside to pile up points and build momentum. The momentum started to flow through the Rebels defense too allowing JC Westside tack on back break away layups off of Wolverine turnovers. JC Westside was clearly in the driver’s seat when the buzzer sounded as the Rebels went into the half up 28-19 over Western Yell.
The second half picked up where the first half left off. Western Yell uncharacteristically could not seem to hit the mark on their shots. The Rebels on the other hand sank a three-pointer and followed it up with a put back to score the first points of the third quarter. JC Westside placed a lease in the paint as the Rebels made the Wolverines pay for any inside attempts to score on one end and dominated the boards on the other to extend their lead to 38-23. The lead only got bigger for the Rebels as Western Yell still couldn’t seem to buy a point while JC Westside just couldn’t miss. The Wolverines broke through the Rebels 20-point lead towards the end of the final quarter, but it was JC Westside who scored their way to a 45-29 lead at the third quarter buzzer. The fourth quarter was a complete rewind of third quarter film as JC Westside used their size advantage to score another 17 points on the Wolverines enroute to a 62-44 over Western Yell.
The JC Westside Rebels earned their automatic spot in the 2A Regional Tournament with the win and will now face the Mansfield Tigers. The two teams split W’s in the regular season with the Rebels winning the latest contest. It will definably be a must-see game as JC Westside takes on Mansfield on Thursday, February 16th at 8:30pm with a shot at the 2A-4 District Championship game on the line.
