By Jim Muir
The Benton Rangerettes split a pair of games on Saturday at the Nashville Invitational Thanksgiving Tournament to go 1-3 in the season-opening tournament.
The Rangerettes dropped a 41-26 decision to Trenton-Wesclin in a 1:30 p.m. game on Saturday afternoon to drop to 0-3 on the young season. Benton was without leading scorer and point guard Eb Casey who did not play.
Benton fell behind 17-6 in the opening quarter and trailed by double digits, 25-15 at the intermission.
Benton girl’s coach Andy Sloan said the team struggled in the early going but saw some positives in the loss.
“We never really got in a rhythm offensively in the game,” Sloan said. “But I thought Milby (Ember) did a good job of running the point and distributing the ball. Kelsey Wilcox probably had her best game at the varsity level and hit some nice shots. Our defensive effort is getting us into some trouble and we really have to improve on that end of the floor.”
Wilcox led the Rangerettes in scoring with 11 followed by Addyson Miller with eight, Milby with four, Madyson Wallce with two and Sesley Tedeschi with one.
With the loss in the early game the Rangerettes were forced to play back-to-back games, matching up against Mascoutah in a 3:30 p.m. 7th place game.
In the matchup against Mascoutah the Rangerettes fell behind early and appeared to be heading for a winless week at Nashville, trailing 12-4 at the end of one period and then falling behind by 13 – 23-10 at halftime.
Whatever Sloan said to his team at halftime must have energized them as the Rangerettes roared back outscoring Mascoutah 18-6 in the third frame to pull back within a single point at 29-28. Benton then outscored Mascoutah 13-8 in the final quarter to pull out a hard-fought 41-37 victory.
“We really got behind but hung in and battled back,” said Sloan. “Our kids played extremely hard and played with a lot of heart after losing the 1:30 game and having to play back-to-back. We had a lot of kids step up and showed some moments of being able to put some good basketball together. We got some stops down the stretch and converted at the line.”
Miller led the Rangerettes with 15, her best offensive outing of the season, and was followed by Wilcox with seven, Casey and Wallace with six each, Milby with four and Zoe Carlton with three.
The Rangerettes are back in action on Nov. 28 when they face always-tough Herrin in the home-opener and the first conference matchup in the SIRR Ohio Division.
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