By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

Riverside and St. Charles each competed against 5A competition at last week’s Grace King/Country Day tournament.

The Rebels fell in two games: to host Grace King on Wednesday, 55-30, and to Central Lafourche on Tuesday, 57-13.

St. Charles fell 49-18 to Fontainebleau last Wednesday. The Comets are now 8-6 on the season, and in the midst of a break until Thursday.

Lauren Doyle and Heidi Garcich each scored 12 for the Rebels against Grace King. Riverside (1-11) essentially played the Irish evenly for the final three quarters — but the first was a doozy for the Rebels, who fell behind 26-3.

“The first quarter killed us,” said Riverside Coach Kristy Hebert. “They got out to a quick start. We couldn’t buy a basket, and they scored a lot of layups against us.”

Grace King converted the Rebel misses into fast break opportunities, which the Irish made the most of. Grace King also hurt Riverside on the boards.

“They had a couple of big girls, and they were getting offensive rebounds,” said Hebert. “Once we adjusted to what they were doing, it was pretty evenly matched. But we were in too big a hole.”

As for Central Lafourche, the Rebels just didn’t have an answer, Hebert says.

“They’ve got a really good team. If we tried to stop the outside, they pounded us inside. If we tried to stop that, they make a 3-pointer. I don’t know that they missed too many,” she said. “It was just one of those games.”

Doyle led Riverside with five points in the game. Central Lafourche led 29-11 at halftime.

The Rebels and Comets were slated to meet for the first time this season on Thursday, but it was cancelled due to snow.

Riverside is not scheduled to play again until Friday, when the Rebels make their first official home debut in their own gym, after renovations were completed this past week. The Rebels have a brand new floor, and will get to test it out against Country Day at 5:30. Then, on Monday, the new look gym gets its first taste of rivalry as St. Charles visits.

Riverside has been playing its games at Reserve Christian in the season’s early stages.

“The floor is beautiful,” said Hebert. “It’s been hard. We haven’t been able to practice every day. You’ve got to squeeze in gym time, and that makes it hard to build any consistency. I think everyone’s looking forward to getting back in there.”