By Jim Muir

The Benton Rangerettes defeated the Herrin Lady Tigers 48-43 in Thursday night action at the Marion Lady Wildcats Invitational.

The hard fought victory moved the Rangerettes to 2-0 on the season and also leaves Benton as the only team in the five-team, round-robin tournament without a loss heading into weekend play.

“It was a tough, hard fought victory,” said first-year coach Andy Sloan. “It wasn’t always pretty and we still need to do a much better job taking care of the basketball but we played hard and competed. Herrin is a well-coached team so it is a nice win for us.”

The Rangerettes jumped out to a 9-8 first quarter lead only to see Herrin go on an 11-3 run to open up a 19-12 lead with five minutes remaining in the second stanza. Keyed by six points from senior Morgan Corn the Rangerettes went on 12-3 run to end the quarter and take a 24-22 halftime lead.

“I thought we closed the second quarter strong and I also thought we had more energy in the second half,” said Sloan. “It was a very physical game.”

With the victory Benton is 2-0 and Herrin drops to 1-1 heading into games on Friday and Saturday. Benton will face Carterville (1-2) tonight at 6 p.m. while Herrin will meet Marion (1-1) at 7:30 p.m. Vienna has a bye on Friday and will meet Herrin at 11 a.m and Benton will face Marion in the tournament finale at 12:30 on Saturday.

Corn led the Rangers with 17 points followed by Makala Carney with 13. Rounding out the Benton scoring was Rowdee Sanders with six, Evelyn Mendez with five, Cali Carney with four and Katie Sandusky and Marcela Mendez with two each. Sami Minor played but did not score. Leading Herrin was Gabby Woodis and Tori Johnson with 13 each and also in double figures was Abby Horn with 12.

In the early game on Thursday Vienna, led by 26 points from Carley Childress, defeated Carterville 53-41.

Benton 9 15 14 11 — 49

Herrin 8 14 13 19 — 44

BENTON (49): E. Mendez 1 2-2 5, M. Carney 5 3-4 13, M. Mendez 0 2-4 2, Sandusky 1 0-0 2, Sanders 1 4-6 6, Corn 4 9-11 17, C. Carney 2 0-2 4,. Totals: 14 20-29 49.

HERRIN (44): Horn 5 0-0 12, W. Woodis 1 1-1 3, Johnson 4 5-8 13, G. Woodis 5 0-0 13, Hunter 1 0-1 2, Yates 0 1-2 1. Totals: 16 9-12 44.

 

 

 By Jim Muir

The Benton Rangerettes picked up a hard-fought 58-53 victory over Vienna Tuesday night in second round play at the Marion Lady Wildcats Invitational.

First year coach Andy Sloan said he was pleased with the overall performance in the season opener.

“I think there was a lot of nerves out there tonight from the girls and myself,” said Sloan following his first win. “At times it wasn’t pretty but I thought we worked hard and showed some character to come back and get the win after we gave up the lead.”

The game was also a typical early season match up with turnovers and fouls at a premium for both squads. In all both teams combined to shoot 72 free throws in the game with Benton hitting 32-43 (74 percent) and Vienna connecting on 18-29 (62 percent).

The game was a virtual roller-coaster with Vienna, the defending champ in the tournament, jumping out to a an early lead only to have Benton roar back and take a 16-14 lead at the first quarter break. The first quarter Benton surge was keyed by junior Sami Minor who came off the bench with five points in the initial stanza.

Benton upped the lead to nine points in the second quarter and took a 26-19 lead into the halftime intermission. But it was all Vienna in the third quarter as they outscored Benton 22-14 to erase the halftime deficit and take a 41-40 lead into the fourth quarter. The Vienna rally was orchestrated by the play of junior Miranda Chance and senior Carley Childress who combined to score 20 of the 22 third quarter points.

“Vienna is a good team and they are well coached,” said Sloan. “We told the girls at halftime that they would come back and they did. But, we kept our composure down the stretch and it was a nice win for us.”

While Childress and Chance combined for 44 of the 53 Vienna points the Rangerettes had a balanced attack led by Morgan Corn with 12 points and Makala Carney with 10. Also near double figures for the Rangerettes was Rowdee Sanders and Evelyn Mendez with nine points each and Sami Minor and Cali Carney with eight each. Freshmen Marcela Mendez added two points in her first varsity game.

“We’ve got to have balanced scoring if we are going to be successful,” said Sloan. “We don’t have that one girl that can come out and get 25 every night so I’m happy with the scoring attack we had tonight.”

The Marion girl’s tournament has been a six-team affair for many years but Eldorado dropped out this year and a replacement couldn’t be found so this year’s event is a five-team round-robin with each team getting one night off. In action on Monday Marion defeated Vienna 52-46 and knocked off Carterville by a scored of 60-55. The Rangerettes had the bye on Monday night. Following the Benton win on Tuesday Carterville pulled off the win against the host Lady Wildcats in the nightcap with a 41-31 victory. After two nights of play Benton and Herrin are both 1-0 with Marion and Carterville at 1-1 and Vienna is 0-2.

The tournament will be idle on Wednesday night with action resuming on Thursday with Vienna and Carterville meeting in the 6 p.m contest and Benton and Herrin facing off in the 7:30 p.m match up.  With Benton and Herrin both at 1-0 the winner of that game on Thursday will be the only team left in the tournament with an unblemished record heading into weekend play.  On Friday night it will be Carterville and Benton meeting at 6 p.m followed by Herrin and Marion at 7:30 p.m.

The tournament will conclude on Saturday with Vienna and Herrin meeting at 11 a.m and Benton meeting Marion in the finale at 12:30 p.m.

All the Benton games will be broadcast on WQRL.

Benton 16 10 14 18 — 58

Vienna 14 5 22 12 — 53

BENTON (58): C. Carney 2 6-10 10, Minor 3 2-4 8, Sanders 1 7-8 9, M. Carney 3 2-4 8, Corn 1 10-12 12,, E. Mendez 2 5-5 9, M. Mendez 1 0-0 2. Totals: 13 32-43 58.

VIENNA (53): Ross 1 2-2 4, Keeling 1 0-2 2, Chance 5 9-10 20, Edwards 1 0-0 2, Childress 8 6-11 24, McKibben 0 1-4 1,. Totals: 16 18-29 53.