ALDEN — During the United South Central Rebels girls’ basketball team’s five-game win streak, defense has been a staple to their success.

The Rebels (11-5, 7-1 Gopher) have limited opponents to only 29 points a game through those five games and defense played a key role again on Friday night as United South Central took on the Alden-Conger Knights.

With the game tied 15-15 at halftime, the Rebels opened the second half on a 13-1 run as the Rebels defeated the Knights (5-7, 1-5 Valley) 48-31.

“A trend of ours of over the last week has been the first half in which at some point we have a lull and tonight we pretty much had a lull for the entire half,” Rebels head coach Stu Hendrickson said. “But then we always have a good second half and tonight we had a great second half.”

While for the Knights, Alden-Conger coach Gary Newman says he was happy with the overall effort of his team especially on defense.

“I thought the girls played hard,” Newman said. “They got after it, and they knew they were going to play a good basketball team. But they still went out there and played very, very good defense and that’s what kept us in the ball game.”

In the first half, both teams struggled on offense as the Rebels held a 11-8 lead with four minutes and 20 seconds left in the first half.

The Knights closed the first half outscoring USC 7-4 to send the game into halftime tied at 15-15.

In the second half, the Rebels defense took over.

USC went on a 13-1 run to open the second half and held the Knights to only one point over a 6 minute stretch.

When Alden-Conger scored their first basket of the second half at the 11:20 mark, the Rebels built a 28-18 lead.

“Our defense has been really picking up since Christmas,” Hendrickson said. “It’s a big part of the win streak we’re on. We really play good defense, and that has been keeping us in games even when our offense has been struggling.”

The Knights then used an 8-3 run to cut the USC lead down to seven at 31-24.

The Rebels then responded as they went on a 17-7 run to end the game and give USC a 48-31 victory.

Katie Overbo led the Rebels in scoring with 12 points, all of them coming in the second half.

Kayla Stenzel also filled up the box score for USC as she recorded a double double with 10 points, 10 rebounds and seven steals.

Val Sahr recorded nine points, eight rebounds, five steals and four assists for USC.

For the Knights, Nikki Schultz recorded a team-high eight points, while Karina Skov scored seven points and had five rebounds.

Ariel Keller also had five points and five rebounds for Alden-Conger.

The Rebels defense held the Knights to 11-of-42 shooting from the field, while USC shot 19-of-48 from the floor on the night.

The Rebels struggled from the free throw line as they shot 8-of-27 from the free throw line, while the Knights shot 6-of-13.

Alden-Conger is back in action on Monday as they travel to Blooming Prairie, while USC hits the court again on Tuesday as they travel to take on Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton.