Photo by Darin Hall/Sports

Thurmond's Courtney Mealing drives against Silver Bluff.

JOHNSTON - The Strom Thurmond varsity girls' basketball team tasted defeat for the first time in the 08-09 season last week when the Lady Rebels came up just short in a thrilling 47-42 loss to Silver Bluff.
The game featured great back-and-forth action, but a lack of scoring down the stretch - or perhaps a determined Silver Bluff defense - would doom the homestanding Lady Rebels in the end.

Senior Thurmond standout Courtney Mealing certainly did what she could to avert defeat with 27 points. Citiyah Burton added 6 points and Amanda Parks had five points.

Cellonda Crawford and Jamie Foreman led the Lady Bulldogs with 14 points each.
The Lady Rebels led at halftime by 6 points at 28-22, but would score just 14 points the rest of the way

as Silver Bluff would put up 25 points on the scoreboard after the break.