BENTON – The Benton Rangerettes continued one of the best starts of any Benton basketball season in quite some time, improving overall record to 17-1 with Thursday night’s 39-31 win over the Massac County Lady Patriots.
The Rangerettes came into this game on a red hot eight-game winning streak, which they have now extended to nine straight wins, which is their longest stretch of victories this season. They began the season 8-0 before their lone loss to Nashville.
The Lady Patriots came into tonight’s game 5-7, and had not played a game in over three weeks prior to this , with their last game being back on Dec. 18. Massac Coach Keith Shelton was worried about that rustiness and said he was hoping to see a “real ugly” low-scoring kind of game, and for the most part, his wish was granted. Massac, while suffering from that extended layoff still brought an imposing presence with two 6 ft. tall post players in Jessica Coakley and Alexxus Thompson, as well as a solid group of guards including Emily Reed and Natalie Hosman.
During the first quarter the Rangerrettes got off to a lousy start with Massac jumping out to a 4-0 lead and Benton failing to score in their first seven possessions much to Coach Andy Sloan’s dismay. Alexxus Thompson recorded a thunderous block early in the first quarter that reverberated throughout Rich Herrin Gymnasium. Benton’s scoreless streak was then finally snapped by a three point shot by Marcela Mendez. Mendez wound up being Benton’s second top scorer for the game with 7 points, and the top rebounder as well snatching 8 of the Rangerrettes’ 21 total rebounds. Kaylee Pedigo came in second in that category with 5 rebounds.
Makala Abney struck next for Benton, scoring two free throws to give Benton a 5-4 lead. Ally Gischer closed out the first quarter with a layup to give the Rangerrettes a 7-4 lead going into the second quarter. Gischer wound up being Benton’s top scorer, and the only player in the game to reach double digits with 10 total points. Makala Abney and Ebriessa Casey both tied for third place in scoring with six a piece. Massac’s top scorers for the game were Mackenzie Cowgill with nine points, and Natalie Hosman who accounted for seven of her team’s 31 points.
Abney started off the second quarter with a shot from the post to make the game 9-4. In the next play Abney blocked a Massac shot and Ally Gischer was able to score to make the game 11-4. Abney’s second quarter dominance came to an abrupt end though as she recorded her second foul of the game and sat out the rest of the quarter. Benton held a steady lead of 16-9 going into halftime but coach Sloan was worried that the game might slip away, and as it turns out, it almost did.
During the first half of the game Benton had two total turnovers to Massac’s three. In the end Benton would wind up with nine total turnovers to Massac’s eight.
During half-time coach Sloan said of his team’s performance. “Yeah we’re just letting them hang around. We’ve had opportunities to step on the gas and extend this lead, but now we’re 16-9. We’re letting them stay in the game. You let a team like this stay in the game, and they’re gonna beat you.”
Massac County came alive in the third with repeated three point buckets. By the end of the third they managed to trim Benton’s lead down to three at 22-19. In the fourth quarter the Lady Pats continued to put on the pressure as they managed to fight back to tie the game at 28-28 off of yet another three pointer. During a timeout in the fourth Coach Sloan told his girls “We gotta rebound like crazy. We cannot let them get an open shot.” His advice panned out as Benton was able to slow down the Massac rally, and only allowed them to score three more total points to achieve the final 39-31 victory.
Sloppy free throw shooting turned out to be a factor in the final minutes of this game. The Rangerrettes in the final minute of the game missed seven out of eight attempts, with Massac going one for five at the same time. Benton wound up 12 for 26 total for the game in free throw shooting. Massac County made only one out of eight total free throw attempts for the night.
Sloan spent much of the game in a state of severe frustration. At various times he could be seen kicking the bleachers, throwing down his Gatorade, and telling his girls to “Quit standing around!” as he blurted out midway through the first quarter. After the game coach Sloan said “A wins a win, and we were battling, but we weren’t being very smart. We gotta be smarter.” When asked what he planned to work on specifically after this game Sloan replied, “Offense. Passing. Free throws. Rebounding. We defended pretty well, but man our offense was struggling.”
Earlier in the night the JV Rangerrettes improved their record to 6-2 with a dominant 44-25 win over the Massac County JV squad. During that game Macie Cockrum, who also plays on the Varsity Rangerrettes went down with an ankle injury after getting tangled up on a rebound attempt. That injury is unfortunately expected to keep her out of action for the next several games.
