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MADISON — Adams County Christian School head coach Matthew Freeman came up with a brilliant game plan for his Rebels last Tuesday night against a high-powered St. Joseph Catholic School of Madison team — slow the tempo down.

And for the most part, that strategy did indeed work. ACCS held St. Joe Madison well under their season average. The problem was the Rebels themselves couldn’t produce enough offense as the Bruins held on for a 41-32 win in a pivotal MAIS District 3-5A game for both teams.

“Obviously St. Joe’s got a good team. I was just proud of our guys’ effort,” Freeman said. We played good defense holding them to 41 points. They score 70, 80 points most of the time. Our strategy was slow the game down and give us a chance to stay in the game as long as possible.”

And the Rebels came oh so close to pulling off a big upset over what is now likely the team to beat in District 3-5A.

“We just missed a couple of lay-ups down the stretch. It was about a four-, five-point game for much of the fourth quarter. They made their free throws down the stretch that stretched the lead to nine. It was a much closer game than the final score (indicated).”

Trenton Davis led ACCS with 12 points and Edarius Green added nine points.

The Rebels (12-6, 2-2) played at Brookhaven Academy in a non-district game at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and then returned to district play on Friday when they played host to cross-town rival Cathedral High School.

In the varsity girls’ game, the St. Joe Madison Lady Bruins defeated the Adams County Christian School Lady Rebels. No other information on that game, including a final score, was available.

The ACCS Lady Rebels (no record available) travel to Brookhaven to take on the Brookhaven Academy Lady Cougars at 6 p.m. Thursday in non-district action before playing host to the cross-town and District 3-5A rival Cathedral High School Lady Green at 6 p.m. Friday.