Minus a short hiatus from the tournament, Harrisburg had never been in the first place game, while Benton, who was in the tournament for the first time this year, joined the Bulldogs in the pool play title game.
One thing they two shared in common, they’re two of the best in southern Illinois, both sporting 20-win records.
With a title fight amongst the two heavyweights in the field, it went the distance as Benton bounced off the ropes and overcame a double-digit second half deficit to beat Harrisburg 53-48 at Duff-Kingston Gymnasium.
With no pun intended, Benton head coach Andy Sloan said he knew it would be a dog fight between his 23-2 Rangerettes and the Bulldogs.
“(Kelsey) Hobbs had a great first half, but I felt like we did a good job on her. She’s a great player and she’s going to get her points, but I felt like we let (Alexa) Burtis get loose a couple of times and (Matty) Hawkins hit some big shots.”
Hobbs had a game-high 17 points, all coming in the first half, while Burtis had five in the first 16 minutes to finish with 11, while Hawkins had six to help Harrisburg (19-6) take a 28-21 lead into the locker room.
The Bulldogs built on that lead to start the third quarter and had it up to as many as 13 before Ally Gischer drilled a 3-pointer from the left wing and Benton didn’t stop making shots.
On the flip side, Harrisburg went cold — at the worst time possible for Bulldog head coach Jake Stewart.
“They made shots and we couldn’t. We just went cold. They did a good job of guarding Kelsey and Alexa on the outside, but overall I thought we played well.
Benton is 23-2 for a reason, they’re a great team and for us to have a 13-point lead on them at some point in the game says a lot about our kids and our program and where we have come in a short time. I think this is obviously a situation going forward that we can learn from and get better from it.”
After Benton tied the game at 42-all in the fourth, back-to-back buckets by Makala Abney gave the Rangerettes a 46-42 lead with three minutes to play.
It was a reversal of fortunes that Sloan was happy to see come to fruition after it was a first half for his team marred by turnovers.
“I just feel like in the first half we weren’t getting shots and just turning the ball over and looking back at it now, I know we didn’t turn the ball over as much in the second half, got some shots to fall and made some better decisions,” Sloan said.
“We have a lot of respect for (Harrisburg) and I think Jake does a great job with them. They have some really good players, but I think our leadership is the difference in this team. Marcella Mendez is a great leader and we have some other kids that are pretty good leaders too, but in the timeouts, they’re not on each other, not yelling at each other. It’s positive in those huddles, the morale is good and they just believe. When you have kids that believe and that aren’t ever going to give up is an important trait and quality. That 13-point lead could have very easily got to 15, 18 or 20 and then they blow you out. We were just lucky enough to hit some shots and get back in it.”
Abney led Benton with 16 points, while Gischer, who took home Most Valuable Player honors from the tournament tacked on 13 and Mendez banked in 10 for the Rangerettes.
Gischer took home MVP honors and was joined on the All-Tournament team with teammates Mendez and Abney, along with Harrisburg’s Hobbs and Burtis.
For Harrisburg, it’s Stewart’s best finish in his five years as head coach. Stewart has a fifth-place game finish, a fourth-place game finish and two third-place game finishes after losing in the first-place game Saturday. Harrisburg ran their total to 18-7 all time under Stewart at the LEMWC as well.
