ADAMS — The Rebels girls didn’t start their opening basketball game against Kasson/Mantorville the way they wanted Tuesday night.

There were some turnovers, missed free throws and even some defensive breakdowns as Southland found itself down 24-11 with 9:30 left in the first half.

Then the Rebels started doing one thing that made a huge difference in a 68-58 win — they hustled non-stop.

“They didn’t get frustrated and they came back. It wasn’t pretty, but we did the things we needed to do to get the win,” Southland head coach Bob Sheehan said. “We’re trying to outwork people this year because we don’t have a lot of height. We just kept battling tonight.”

The Rebels (1-0 overall) had five players with at least seven rebounds and they crushed the Komets (2-1 overall) on the boards to the tune of 60-34.

Southland, which finished with 35 turnovers, made up for its early deficit with a 13-0 run that was capped by a put-back from Madilyn Schmitz.

Things weren’t looking good for Southland when their top scorer Jana Schammel left the game with a cramp with just under 10 minutes left in the game and her team trailing leading 48-46.

“It was tough to sit out, I just wanted to get back out there and keep playing,” said Jana Schammel, who finished with 15 points, 3 assists, 3 steals, 4 blocks, 4 rebounds.

While Jana Schammel, a sophomore guard, sat, the rest of the Rebels went to work. Lindsey Bottema, who scored 11 points, knocked down three free throws and Brandi Schammel, who had 14 points and 13 rebounds, hit two free throws to put Southland up 56-47 with 6:40 left in the game.

“Jana’s a very good basketball player, but we’ve got a lot of girls that can play the game and I think that’s going to be noticed here shortly,” Sheehan said. “Everybody talks about Jana, but we’ve got six other girls that can play. When she does come out we feel confident we can play a pretty good game.”

Brandi Schammel converted a three-point play to make it 59-49 with 4:23 left and then Jana Schammel got to get back in the game to put it away. She blocked a shot, recovered it and found Brandi Schammel for a lay-up to make it 64-52 and she banked in a short jumper to make it 66-54.

In the end, Southland had four players score in double figures and Kelli Smith was a big factor as she finished with six points, nine rebounds and five assists.

“Jana’s a good player on our team and she draws some attention, then we can be like a secret weapon and take it at them,” said Smith, a junior guard.

K/M              34 24 — 58

Southland 37 31 — 68

Southland scoring: Jana Schammel, 15; Brandi Schammel, 14; Madilyn Schmitz, 13; Lindsey Bottema, 11; Kelli Smith, 6; Haley Kirkpatrick, 4; Brooke Maiers, 3; Brianna Reinartz, 2; free throws: 56 percent (24-for-43); rebounds: 60 (Brandi Schammel, 13); turnovers: 35

K/M scoring: Holly Peterson, 15; Bre Barrett, 13; Abbey Lacey, 10; Autumn Ehlke, 7; Kaia Buck, 7; Abby Manitz, 2; Toni Kennedy, 2; Kailyn Wigham, 2; free throws: 35 percent (9-for-26); rebounds: 34; turnovers: 22