WOODVILLE &045; If their guards can keep this up, the Adams Christian Lady Rebels may do more than merely be competitive in that tough District 2-AAA.

With post April Boyd out of town and the team matching up against big Jenae Jackson in the post, the Lady Rebels gave Centreville all sorts of fits Saturday in their 52-33 win over the Lady Tigers at the WCCA New Year’s Shootout. And to come off a holiday break where sluggish starts are the norm, they had to leave Saturday feeling pretty good about themselves.

The win puts the Lady Rebels (11-5) on a high note when they resume district play Tuesday at Central Private.

&uot;We hadn’t had very many practices over the holidays, and I was real pleased with their efforts,&uot; AC head coach Bruce Pickle said. &uot;We practiced three times, and the most we had at practice was seven. I was real pleased with their effort coming back. We’ve got a big game coming up Tuesday. We can beat them if we can take care of the basketball.&uot;

The Lady Rebels handled the ball better against Centreville, but the biggest improvement may have been on the defensive end in giving the Lady Tigers’ guards problems and denying Jackson the ball as much as possible.

It worked well early &045; the Lady Tigers were held scoreless over a stretch of nearly 10 minutes in the first half &045; and AC was able to put the game out of reach early.

&uot;We started off sluggish,&uot; Centreville head coach Penny Sawyer said. &uot;I don’t know if we practiced them too much. They just started off sluggish. We practiced them five days during the holidays, and that may have been too much. They’re disappointed, and I’m disappointed. We’ll get back to work, get back tomorrow and start all over again.&uot;

The Lady Tigers didn’t get many shots off in that stretch in the first half and suffered too many turnovers to get into a rhythm offensively. Jackson, the USM signee inside, finished the game with 21 points but hit just four in the second quarter and seven the entire first half.

Ash Brashier scored with 3:25 left in the first to put the Lady Tigers’ lead at 9-5, but they didn’t score again until Jackson hit a basket inside the paint with 1:27 left that trimmed the Lady Rebels’ lead to 25-11.

&uot;We were really worried about No. 10 (Brashier) shooting and keeping the ball away from Jenae,&uot; Pickle said. &uot;That was our two goals. Jenae is pretty tough when she gets that ball down on the block and it takes two of us to guard her. We were just trying to make it difficult on them to get the ball to Jenae.&uot;

It was during that run the Lady Rebels shook off a little sluggish start of their own to heat up. Kim Robertson hit three of her five 3-pointers in that run, including consecutive bombs late in the first quarter that helped them take the lead.

She hit another in the second, and Joy Wynn put in a layup with 1:46 left to put the lead at 25-9.

After Jackson hit the bucket to stop the run, Brittany Gamberi drained a 3-pointer as the Lady Rebels took a convincing 28-13 lead at halftime.