BENTON — The Benton Rangers' (22-4, 5-2) eight game winning-streak came to an abrupt end Saturday night as they dropped their Rich Herrin Classic game against the Teutopolis Wooden Shoes 54-37. This victory came just one night after the Rangers routed the West Frankfort Redbirds 56-17.
In a unique situation, Ron Winemiller and Jason Hanson, the two head coaches in the game are brothers. Former Ranger Coach Rich Herrin, who coached against his late brother Ron Herrin on multiple occasions commented on what that was like personally. "It's never easy. We played 16 times — he won eight and I won eight. He was a really good big brother and I learned a lot from him." Asked what his advice for the Rangers if he were coaching them would be, Coach Herrin said, "Play hard, that's about all you can do. Play hard and keep your composure. That's about the best advice you can give anybody. I think it'll be exciting."
The Rangers heeded that advice in the first half of the game, even though they got off to a slow start in the first quarter, not scoring their first bucket until the 5:18 mark when Austin Wills went one for two on a pair of free throws. Benton made an effective rally though after some three pointers by Derek Oxford and Timmy Henson got them back in the game.
They finished the first quarter trailing Teutopolis 14-17. The Rangers continued to play hard into the second quarter, outscoring the Shoes 15-12. They enjoyed a three point lead with under a minute left in the game until the Shoes tied the game with a buzzer beating three-pointer.
The game was decided in the third quarter as the Shoes cranked on some serious defensive pressure to hold the Rangers to only one basket in the entire quarter finishing the quarter with a ten point lead. The Ranger faithful were still hopeful for a turnaround in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t in the cards as the Shoes outscored the Rangers 13-6 to finish the game with a 54-37 victory.
Kruz Hayes, who wasn’t in the starting lineup, was the only Ranger to reach double digits, winding up with 12 points including a three-pointer. Brendan Ritchason hit two three pointers and one free throw to score 12 total, while Oxford and Henson both wound up with 6 points each. Benton only scored nine regular field goals, but made up for it early on by leaning heavily on three point buckets, which accounted for more than a third of their total offense in the game. They hit five total three-pointers and were 4-of-10 from the charity line.
Turnovers and rebounds were a big factor for Benton. In the first half coach Ron Winemiller told his boys, “When they shoot we gotta box out. You can’t let them crush you under the glass.” Which proved to be much easier said than done against the much taller Shoes who out rebounded the Rangers in every quarter, and also forced the Rangers to cough up the ball 17 times, while committing only 10 turnovers themselves. Devin Smith and Bett Mettle both scored 14 points for T-Town, accounting for over half of their team’s total offense. The Wooden Shoes hit 21 total field goals, with two threes, and were 6-of-8 at the free throw line.
After the game, a dejected but composed Winemiller said the game was decided in the third quarter.
"I thought they really kind of turned up the heat on us, and kind of got away from us, and you know we didn't score the ball. And I thought that was the difference in the game."
Winemiller's closing advice to his Ranger squad, echoing the sentiments of coach Herrin, was, "You have to play hard the whole game."
Commenting on what it was like coaching against his brother, Winemiller said, "Yeah, it was not fun. I thought it would be an easy thing going into it, but at the end of the day, I did not enjoy it at all. I hope I never have to do it again. Only time I'd want to do it again would be in the post-season."
Winemiller agreed that it would have been a bittersweet victory either way. "Yeah exactly, because somebody's gotta lose, and you're trying to beat the person that you love most in this world, and it's not a lot of fun."
Hanson, while proud of his team, was also not in the best of spirits following the victory. "Well we played really well, that was one of our better games of the year"
In other action Saturday night Hardin Co. fell to Hamilton Co. 49-33, and Mt. Carmel defeated Casey Westfield 62-50. Anna-Jonesboro beat Fairfield 49-44 and Goreville defeated Gallatin Co. 49-43. In the final game of the night Harrisburg bested Oregon 62-59.
Before things got rolling Coach Herrin talked about how it felt being able to help all of the schools competing in the Rich Herrin Classic.
"Well that's about all I got left to do. If I can help out some of these young folks get a scholarship and a degree that's pretty exciting. And to help them graduate — tuition fees and books for school are very expensive right now so whatever I can do to help to help these students get a degree, that's exciting for me."
