BENTON — Benton dropped down a class to take on county rival Christopher on Monday night.
Getting warmed up for its Rangerette Classic next week, the Rangerettes claimed a wire-to-wire 51-33 victory.
"I think when you play a 1A team they have everything to gain and you've got everything to lose so it's kind of tough on us," said Benton coach Andy Sloan. "Give credit to those guys, I thought they played harder than we did. What we've got to learn is that no matter who the opponent is, we've got to be focused and play harder than the opponent every night or we're going to find ourselves in some bad positions."
It took the Rangerettes more than two minutes to score in the opening quarter with Taylor Mosley finally draining a trey to give Benton the early 3-0 lead. Leading 6-4, the Rangerettes went on a 10-0 run midway through the quarter to take a commanding 16-4 lead.
One of the most dazzling plays during that run was a layup by Makala Abney after getting a nice dish from Marcela Mendez, who passed up a mid-range jumper. Abney, who had 12 points by halftime, finished with a game-leading 16 points, playing sparingly in the second half.
Teamate Ally Gischer added 10 points for the Rangerettes, who improved to 11-1. The Bearcats fell to 4-4.
"I thought we played slow for whatever reason, offensively. And defensively, we didn't guard as well as we usually guard so we've got to find a way to play harder and be focused, no matter who we're playing," Sloan said.
Benton outscored Christopher 8-2 in the final 4 1/2 minutes of the second quarter to take a 15-point, 29-14 lead, at halftime.
Taking no warmup shots during the halftime break, Christopher gave up the first four points of the second half and fell behind 33-14.
Following a pair of jumpers in the lane by Christopher's Maddie Gossett, Benton closed out the quarter on a 6-2 run, taking a 38-20 lead into the final eight minutes. Five of Benton's nine points in the quarter came from the charity stripe as the Rangerettes hit 12-of-20 for the game.
Six straight points from the Bearcats cut the lead to 40-26 with five minutes to go, but Mendez made the first of two free throws and Benton managed to get the rebound to save the possession and Mendez followed with a bucket to push the lead back to 45-28 at the four-minute mark.
Gossett led the Lady Bearcats with 10 points and senior Autumn Gunter, who hardly missed any shots during pre game warmups, added nine. She was 0-of-9 to start the game, and 0-8 from beyond the arc, getting defensive pressure from several Benton players.
"She was our focus. We knew she could take over a game. She's one of the better players in the south. She can handle the ball and she can finish at the rim. I thought until late we did a good job of guarding her. Mendez was on her and did a good job," Sloan said.
"When you guard, you can afford to have some nights when you don't shoot well. That's how we go about things. We know we have to guard first and shoot second. When you do that, you're going to have a chance."
Sloan said he feels good about where his team is right now, heading into next week's tournament.
"Losing the key kids we lost from a year ago, we had a lot of unknowns this year so to be 11-1 here at the break is a great thing for our kids. They work hard and come to practice every day. That is a credit to them and I'm glad we're off to such a great start."
Christopher 6 14 20 33
Benton 18 29 38 51
Christopher: Henson 0 0-0 0, Wilson 2 0-0 4, Gossett 5 0-1 10, Gunter 4 1-1 9, Young 4 0-1 8, W. Hoppers 1 0-0 2, C. Hoppers 0 0-2 0, DeLaval 0 0-2 0. TOTALS 16 1-7 33.
Benton Ing 2 1-2 5, Mendez 2 3-7 7, Mosley 2 1-2 7, Gischer 2 5-7 10, M. Abney 8 0-0 16, Pedigo 0 2-2 2, Casey 0 0-0 0, A. Abney 1 0-0 2, Milby 0 0-0 0, Jerkins 0 0-0 0, Zinzilieta 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 18 12-20 51.
3-point baskets: Christopher — None; Benton 3 (Mosley 2, Gischer 1); Turnovers: Benton 10, Christopher 13; Rebounds: Benton 31 (M. Abney 7), Christopher 19 (Wilson 4); Fouled out: None.
JV: Benton 44-21.
