It’s hard to believe that Thornton Fractional South won just one game last season.
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It’s much harder to believe the Rebels are 18-3 this season.
Believe it.
T.F. South continued its break-through year by shocking No. 20 Thornton 65-60 in a SICA East upset Friday night in Lansing. The defeat was the Wildcats’ first in the conference.
The Rebels improved to 3-3 in the SICA East; the Wildcats fell to 17-6, 5-1.
Thornton raced to a 10-0 lead in the opening 3 minutes Friday and appeared on its way to an easy victory. At that point, coach Marc Brewe had seen enough and angrily called a timeout.
“Coach said we can’t come out here and get embarrassed in front of our home crowd,” said the Rebels’ Paris Carter, who finished with 20 points and 14 rebounds. “He said this was a conference game and we needed to step it up.
And did they ever. The Rebels came out of the huddle and went on a 10-0 run of their own. That was the start of a 29-6 surge that left Thornton behind 29-16. The Wildcats rallied, though, tying the game at the half 31-31 behind a 15-2 run.
With the score knotted 51-51 early in the fourth quarter, the Rebels took the lead for good behind an 11-3 run for a 62-54 lead. The Wildcats cut it to 62-60 behind a bucket by Reggie Smith (15 points), but a key rebound basket by Rajsaun Thompson (18 points, 10 rebounds) following a missed free throw with :19 left secured the triumph.
Tommie Ramsey had 12 points for the Rebels while Evan Reese added 11 points and five assists. A.J Locke gave the hosts some much-needed ballhandling off the bench in the final minutes. Trevell Rivers’ 18 points led Thornton.
“I wanted to try my hardest to get the ball [after the missed free throw],” Thompson said of his putback. “We had the mind-set after the first time we played them [74-62 loss] that they stole it from us.
“This will let people know we aren’t a pushover team like we were last year.”