Photo by DARIN HALL/Sports

The Rebels opened the season with a win over the Barnwell Warhorses.

JOHNSTON - The high-flying Strom Thurmond Rebels, ranked sixth in Class 2-A in the preseason, lived up to the advance billing by defeating Barnwell 56-46 in the team's season opener Tuesday.

Tra'ves Bush led the Rebels with a team-high 10 points, followed by Alex Parks with 9 points and Keith Andrews and Mike Kemp with 7 points each. Barnwell's Nate Fielder led all scorers with 16.
Strom Thurmond opened the contest on fire, and led 15-2 at the end of the quarter.

However, the visiting Warhorses quickly served notice that they would not be going away that easily. Barnwell tightened things up on the strength of a 20-11 quarter to make the score 26-22 at the break.

The game was hotly contested the rest of the way, but the Rebels never gave up the lead.
Other Rebel scorers in the game were Nick Williamson with 6 points and DeMarkus Smith with 4.