The Adams County Christian School Rebels and Delta Charter Storm basketball teams took to the court Monday night, with the Lady Rebels rolling in the girls’ contest, but the Storm answering in the boys game.

ACCS opened the junior varsity girls game on a 23-0 run and went on to dominate in a 52-8 victory.

“This group of ninth and tenth graders has been together since the third grade, that makes a big difference,” ACCS junior varsity coach Brandy Hall said. “Their togetherness and unity makes all the difference. They came together and used each other. No one was selfish, and they played how they had been taught.

Nearly every Lady Rebel recorded a basket in the victory and it was their passing game that allowed for so many players to get on the scoreboard.

“That is what we work on every day,” said Hall of the team’s passing. “Sometimes we have some that are too unselfish, but we’ve taught them that one person can’t beat a team. So when you have five on the court that can do something with it, good things happen.”

ACCS held Delta Charter scoreless in two separate quarters and held the Storm to a single digit scoring mark.

“Since they were young I’ve stressed defense,” Hall said. “We have got to play defense, and I tell them every day that defense wins championships.”

With the game in control just minutes after tip-off, the Lady Rebels were able to also get a look at some offensive sets, instead of running the floor.

After taking a 31-5 lead into half, ACCS outscored Delta Charter 21-3 in the second half to secure the win.

Michaela Ashley and Lexie Emmanuel led the Lady Rebels with 10 points a piece and Bailey Boyd and Harley Martin each added eight.

But in the final game of the night, Delta Charter was looking to avenge the loss, and the boys team was able to do so, taking down ACCS 41-34.

“We’ve been battle tested,” Delta Charter coach Dwayne Taylor said. “We’ve been playing varsity teams, and I think they played pretty good. We had a lot of mistakes, bad passes and not coming back to the ball, little things like that. But that can be worked on.”

The Storm led 24-15 at the halftime break, but suffering on long distance shots.

“They were playing us in a 2-3 zone, and we have pretty good shooters,” Taylor said. “We wanted to utilize our shooters. Shots weren’t falling, and that is why we started running some offensive sets, but when people play us in the 2-3, we are going to shoot the ball.”

With Delta Charter on struggling to connect, ACCS made their move, pulling within four at 32-27 at the end of the third quarter.

But for Delta Charter, it was nothing to panic about.

“We just played a double overtime game against a varsity school and we just played Tensas as well, and we were down by 10 at half and came back,” Taylor said. “We are used to battling. These kids have a whole lot of heart.”

Things appeared grim for Delta Charter, when point guard DaeVern Mayes went down with an injury in the fourth and was forced to sit out the rest of the game. But the Storm were able to hang on and hold off ACCS.

“That kid can control the floor without me even being out here,” said Taylor of Mayes. “He is an eighth grader, but plays like a 10th or 11th grader. Even though he is small, he has the biggest heart on the team. He is our leader, and you can tell by the way he handles the ball and the floor. Without him, it is hard for us to function.”

Despite losing, ACCS coach Matthew Freeman said he was pleased with his team’s performance, considering they had never played together before the game.

“We have a junior high team with seventh, eighth and ninth, and then the high school team is 10th, 11th and 12th. They don’t ever get a chance to practice together and that was the first time that team has played together. I think they played very well considering it was their first time together.”

Dawson Woodruff led the Storm with 11 points, followed by Mayes with 10.

Leading the way for ACCS was Sneh Patel with 10.