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Mount Vernon's Rennie racks up 600th victory

By Jack Clark, For the Southern

Thursday, January 8, 2009 10:57 PM CST

MOUNT VERNON - The Mount Vernon Lady Rams overcame a 24-14 deficit at halftime to defeat the Cahokia Lady Comanches, 51-48, at Changnon Gym on Thursday night.

The win marked the 600th career victory for Lady Rams coach Sara Rennie. Rennie will be retiring after the season after 33 years as the only girls basketball head coach in Lady Rams history.

"The credit all goes to my players. They wanted this game so badly," Rennie said. "This was a whole victory."

The Lady Rams regained the lead with 3:01 remaining in the fourth quarter and led by 51-45 with 10 seconds to go. Rennie said the second half was clearly different from the first. Mariah Fleming led the Lady Rams with 15 points, most of which came in the second half.

"They did a very good job on Mariah," Rennie said. "They double-teamed her in the first half, but in the second half, she was a woman possessed."

Jaqueline Backstrom added 12 for Mount Vernon.

Joanna Coleman led all scorers with 23 for Cahokia. Fredricka Walker had 13 in the losing effort.