By Jim Muir
Derek Oxford tallied a season high 30 points and the Benton Middle School Junior Rangers overcame a 13-point first quarter deficit to notch a 51-37 home court victory Monday night over Mt. Vernon.
The rousing come-from-behind victory improved BMS to 17-4 overall and was a proper send off to post season play that will begin Thursday night when Benton meets cross-county rival West Frankfort in a first round match up at the Hamilton County regional.
The Benton-West Frankfort game is at 5:30 followed by Hamilton County and Johnston City at 7 p.m. The winners will meet at 10 a.m. Saturday for the right to advance to the Class L state tournament at Rend Lake College.
The Junior Rangers fell behind 15-2 in the early going but rallied on a 5-0 run to close out the opening stanza, cutting the score to 15-7 at the end of one period.
“Mt. Vernon is big and very athletic, but early on they were simply out-hustling us. Their penetration was killing us and they were beating us to every rebound,” said Benton coach John Cook. “Defensively, they were able to stretch their zone across our small floor and it was difficult for us to move the ball or penetrate the gaps. We were forcing shots and shooting the ball very early in our possessions.”
Both teams scored 10 points in the second quarter and Mt. Vernon still controlled an eight point lead at the intermission, leading 25-17. Some halftime adjustments by Benton translated to a big third quarter for the Junior Rangers as they outscored Mt. Vernon 18-9 to turn grab a 35-34 lead at the end of three quarters.
Benton then put the game on ice by outscoring Mt. Vernon 16-3 in the final frame to gain the 51-37 victory.
“Hamilton Page and Scott Mosley gave us huge minutes off the bench and really played well on the defensive end. As a team we figured out what Mt. Vernon was capable of personnel-wise and we made the right adjustments,” said Cook. “Offensively, we put our better shooters on the top of the zone and gave them a little more freedom that earlier in the game. In the second half we were much more patient and looked to attack in transition.”
Along with Page and Mosley the BMS coach also gave high marks to Oxford who had six rebounds to go with his game high 30 points, Austin Wills who tallied 16 and also dished out five assists and Tyson Houghland, who scored three points but hauled down a career high 16 rebounds.
“I can’t say enough about the effort of Tyson (Houghland),” said Cook. “He has been sick for a couple of days now but he toughed it out and really defended and rebounded the ball well. Austin (Wills) found his stroke tonight and Derek was just himself tonight.”
The 8th grade team finished regular season with a 17-4 record, with two of those losses to unbeaten Marion. Benton also lost to Du Quoin and Herrin early in the season but avenged both those losses in the second half of the season. The BMS 8th grade players, cheerleaders and their parents were honored prior to the game, the last regular season game of the season.
The BMS 7th grade team was also victorious in the preliminary contest picking up a hard fought 41-35 win over visiting Mt. Vernon.
Blane Pankey led the way for Benton with 11 points and was followed closely by Brett Bonenberger who tallied nine points.
Benton led at every stop grabbing a 13-6 first quarter lead and maintained the seven point advantage leading 20-13 at halftime. The 7th grade squad upped its lead to 31-21 at the end of three.
Also contributing to the victory was Hamilton Page with seven points, Drew Owens with six points, Parker Williams with five points and Eldon Owens with three points. Mason Wills also saw action for Benton. The 7th grade squad was without the services of starting guard Gehrig Wynn who missed the game because of illness.
The seventh grade team, coached by Andy Davis, closed out the regular season with an overall record of 16-5 that includes a second place finish in the recent Big 7 Conference Tournament.
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