Photo by Jake McNeill: Westbrook-Walnut Grove guard Riley Parker drives along the baseline before attempting a layup during the first half of a prep girls basketball game against Murray County Central on Monday night in Westbrook. Parker left the game with a lower body injury, but the Chargers went on to capture a 51-38 home victory.

WESTBROOK — An offensive surge to start each half set the tone for the Westbrook-Walnut Grove girls basketball team on Monday night. The Chargers opened each half of their game against Murray County Central with 8 unanswered points and never let the Rebels get within one possession from there. The early momentum resulted in a 51-38 win for the Chargers.

“I was proud of the effort because we’ve had a few games this year where we don’t start very well offensively,” WWG head coach Dan Klumper said. “But tonight we had really good energy from the start, we had really good energy out of halftime, so we just talked about… keeping our poise, talking through it and making sure we were all on the same page.”

The Chargers led by as many as 12 points in the first half before Murray County Central found its rhythm late. Coming out of a timeout and facing a 22-12 deficit in the final five minutes of the half, Thea Schneider started to get the Rebels going with a 3-pointer to bring the deficit back to single digits.

Carlie Rosss answered with a midrange jumper from the wing for WWG, but Kat Miller continued to cut into the deficit with a turnaround jumper and a 3-pointer to cut MCC’s lead to its thinnest margin since the game’s opening minutes, 24-20.

“I thought we played good, complementary basketball where we got some stops on the defensive end and then were able to finish around the rim,” MCC head coach Lucas Freeman said. “We got Kat Miller to hit a couple 3s from outside, so when we play good, complementary basketball and get stops, I think we’re able to space the floor well and just able to hit more shots.”

Miller finished the game with a team-high 12 points for the Rebels, shooting 4 of 9 from the field, while Calleigh Doeden added another 11 points on 5 of 8 shooting.

Each team finished with three makes from beyond the arc, MCC doing so on 20 attempts and WWG on 16. The Rebels’ 2-point percentage of 31.4% was also higher than WWG’s 30% clip, but WWG had an extra 15 attempts because of their dominance on the glass. The Chargers outrebounded the Rebels 42-25, including a 13-5 edge on the offensive glass.

Leah Carter led the WWG rebounding effort with 10 total rebounds and six offensive boards. Natalie Wahl and Hadley Jenniges added another eight and six total rebounds respectively while Ross grabbed three offensive boards. For the Rebels, Ava Deacon grabbed 10 total rebounds while Doeden added six.

“They’ve got a lot of girls that average four to five boards per game, so we knew that was going to be a point of emphasis, making sure that we get those defensive rebounds secured,” Klumper said. “We feel like if we make them take outside shots, obviously that percentage is going to be a lot lower than in the paint off offensive rebound putbacks, so we just really focus on trying to control the paint on offense and defense.”

The Chargers wasted no time regaining any lost momentum coming out of the locker room after MCC’s late run. Riley Parker, Wahl and Carter scored each of the half’s first 8 points to bring the Chargers’ lead up to 32-20.

Miller responded to the Charger run with back-to-back baskets and a pair of free throws, interrupted only by another Schneider bucket for the Rebels and a Carter layup for the Chargers. The run brought MCC as close as it would get for the remainder of the game 34-28.

Prior to Miller’s free throws, the game was briefly paused after Parker went down with an apparent lower body injury. She was carried off the court and did not return to the game.

“We’ll definitely see what’s the status the next couple of days and obviously hope for the best,” Klumper said. “If she has to miss some time, it’ll just be next girl up. She’ll just be expected to go out there and play her job.”

Ross and Carter had the hot hand for WWG in the first half, scoring 9 and 8 points respectively heading into the locker room. Carter went on to finish with a game-high 18 points on 6 of 24 shooting while Ross’ 9 were third on the team behind Wahl’s 12.

Carter and Parker each scooped layups into the bottom of the basket to give WWG its first points of the game. A baseline inbound from Jenniges to Wahl kept the Charger surge going and a Ross bucket gave WWG 8 unanswered points in the paint to start the game when MCC called its first timeouts three minutes in.

Kaitlyn Blankenship ended the MCC drought with an and-1 after the break, but Ross answered with a 3-pointer for the Chargers to score the game’s first points outside of the paint. Another bucket from Carter then brought WWG’s lead up to double digits for the first time, 13-3.

A pair of quick buckets from Wahl and Carter gave WWG its largest lead of the half, 17-5, when MCC called a timeout with nine minutes remaining. The huddle seemed to help the Rebels, as Doeden scored back-to-back baskets with an and-1 free throw on one to give her team 5 unanswered points.

Westbrook-Walnut Grove now sits at 15-5 on the season, putting them 10 games over .500 after the win. The Chargers will look to continue to improve on that mark when they host Edgerton (11-9) on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

MCC, meanwhile, falls to 7-14 on the season after dropping four of its last five games. The Rebels have another pair of strong challengers on the road ahead, hosting Adrian-Ellsworth (13-7) on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Southwest Minnesota Christian (13-7) on MOnday at the same time.

“We’re still hoping that our best basketball is in front of us. We feel like we were competitive on both of those games earlier,” Freeman said, noting that the Rebels beat Southwest Christian 60-59 in their initial matchup and played a tight first half in a 53-39 loss to Adrian-Ellsworth. “It’s really just about being consistent, stacking days together and building toward the section tournament… It’s nice to see the effort tonight, come back and be able to battle against a really good team. Hopefully we’ll continue to do that.”