A Winning Season on an Off Year 

After a late run in the postseason last year making it to the Elite Eight, it would be an understatement to say that the girls’ basketball team was ready to get started. Although it was a disappointment to players that there would be no post-season this year, they were happy just to be able to have a season. 

To start the season, the Lady Rockets traveled to face a tough Civic memorial team who is said to be the best 3A team south of Springfield.  Even though the Lady Rockets are just a 1A team they gave Civic all they had, but came up short 56-49.  Scoring for the Lady Rockets was Briley Rhodes 14, Alayna Kraus 12, Megan Rennegarbe 8, Sevanah Hackstadt 5, Raelyn Obermeier 3, Madisyn Wienstroer 3, Sydney Tebbe 2, and Dylan Benson 2.  

For the next game, the team traveled to Caryle to play the Lady Indians. In this game, every player on the team saw minutes, and the Lady Rockets took the win 64-38. Scoring was Briley Rhodes 14, Alayna Kraus 11, Chloe Kraus 6, Raelyn Obermeier 6, Megan Rennegarbe 6, Jordyn Heckert 5, Madisyn Wienstroer 5, Sevanah Hackstadt 4, Sydney Tebbe 3, and Kylie Going 2.

For the first home contest of the season, the young team faced a very experienced Breese Central team.  The Lady Rockets fought hard but came up short 62-46.  Scoring for the game looked like Briley Rhodes 17, Sydney Tebbe 6, Megan Rennegarbe 6, Raelyn Obermeier 6, Alaya Kraus 4, Sevanah Hackstadt 3, Madisyn Wienstroer 2, and Jordyn Heckert 2.  Once again the Lady Rockets had to travel, but this time to Columbia.  This game went down to the wire and the Lady Rockets won on a last-second three-pointer by Briley Rhodes with a score of 43-40.  

The Lady Rockets then faced Freeburg, not having a great game, and the outcome was not wanted with a loss of 40-31.  Scoring for the Lady Rockets was Briley Rhodes 10, Raelyn Obermeier 9, Alayna Kraus 7, Megan Rennegarbe 4, and Dylan Benson 1.

Once again the Lady Rockets faced Columbia only this time it was at home, and the outcome was a lot better.  The Lady Rockets picked up the win 64-48 playing an excellent game.  Scoring was Briley Rhodes 25, Alayna Kraus 15, Megan Rennegarbe 8, Sydney Tebbe 8, Raelyn Obermeier 5, and Sevanah Hackstadt 3. 

Once again Okawville would be facing the Carlyle Lady Indians.  All Okawville players saw minutes once again taking the win easily 69-25.  Leading scorers for the Rockets were Alayna Kraus 17, followed by Briley Rhodes and Sydney Tebbe with 12, Megan Rennegarbe 8, Sevanah Hackstadt 5, Ellie Frederking 4, Raelyn Obermeier 3, Madisyn Wienstroer 2, Raegan Luechtefeld 2, Jordyn Heckert 2, and Dylan Benson 2.

The Lady Rockets traveled to Salem to play them for the first time this season since their first game got canceled due to snow.  The game was close at half with the Lady Rockets being down 21-17.  That did not matter in the end, though, with the Lady Rockets pulling out the win 49-35.  Scoring was Briley Rhodes 18, Alayna Kraus 12, Megan Rennegarbe 5, Madisyn Wienstroer 4, Sydney Tebbe 3, Raelyn Obermeier 3, Dylan Benson 2, and Sevanah Hackstadt 2.

It was then back home to the O-rena for one last time this where the Lady Rockets would face the Wesclin Lady Warriors.  It was senior day, so seniors Chloe Kraus and Sevanah Hackstadt were honored for four wonderful years being a part of the Lady Rocket basketball team.  They made the most out of their day as the Lady Rockets captured the win 53-25.  Scoring was Sydney Tebbe 17, Alayna Kraus 8, Briley Rhodes 7, Madisyn Wienstroer 7, Raegan Luechtefeld 5,  Chloe Kraus 3, Sevanah Hackstadt 3, Megan Rennegarbe 2, and Jordyn Heckert 1. 

The team then traveled to play Breese Central once again,  the outcome again was a lost 54-43 but was a much better played game.  Leading scorers were Alayna Kraus 11, followed by Briley Rhodes 10, Sevanah Hackstadt 7, Sydney Tebbe 6, Megan Rennegarbe 4, Madisyn Wienstroer 3, and Raelyn Obermeier 2.

The Lady Rockets then traveled to Freeburg for what you might call their best game of the season.  The Lady Rockets fought and battled hard all the way to the end where they won the game 58-51.  After getting beaten by Freeburg earlier in the season, it meant a lot to the team to beat them back.  Scoring was Briley Rhodes 18, Alayna Kraus 15, Sydney Tebbe 15, Megan Rennegarbe 9, and Jordyn Heckert 1.

For the last game of the season, the Lady Rockets headed to Red Bud to play a non-conference game.  They picked up one final win of the season 67-35.  Leading scorers were Briley Rhodes 17, Megan Rennegarbe 14, Alayna Kraus 8, Sydney Tebbe 8, Jordyn Heckert 5, Sevanah Hackstadt 5,  Madisyn Wienstroer 4, Chloe Kraus 3, Raelyn Obermeier 2, and Adysen Harre 1. 

With that, the season was over and the Lady Rockets finished with a record of 8-4.  I asked Junior Sydney Tebbe how she thinks the season went. She replied with “I thought that the season went well considering everything that was going on around us. We had a lot of strong players which made us a very good team. We fought hard most of our games and tried to always leave everything out on the floor.”