BENTON — The Benton Rangerettes continued their impressive season early on Monday afternoon, improving their record to 12-1 with a 22-point win over game competition in the Meridian Lady Bobcats, who prior to this game had only lost two other games this season.
The 66-43 victory came in the opening contest of the 2015 Benton Rangerette Christmas Classic. Later in the evening, Benton rolled to a 42-22 win over Hamilton County to improve to 13-1.
Before the opening game, Benton coach Andy Sloan spoke about the success of his Rangerette squad in this first half of the campaign.
“We’re off to a pretty good start at 11-1 before the break," he said. "This tournament, being at our place, we’re the hosts, so we want to do well, but we know we’re going to have to take the court against some very good teams. We’re gonna have to play well.”
Sloan said to beat Meridian his girls were going to have to set the pace of the game to suit their style of play.
“They’re gonna be athletic," he said. "They’re gonna try to speed up the game. We’re going to have to control the tempo and play at our pace, and execute on the offensive end and be solid defensively.”
Meridian coach Jerry Johnson came into the game optimistic about his ladies chances on the court. “This season’s been pretty good," Johnson said. "We’re 8-2 right now. We’re young. We only have one senior; she’s not really a starter. We’re mostly sophomores and juniors.”
Asked if he thought it would be difficult for the Rangerettes to slow down his Bobcats, coach Johnson said “Very.”
“Hopefully we can speed the pace up.” Johnson added. “That’s what we want to do. Speed the pace up and make them play our game instead of us playing their game. That’s our gameplan.”
While the game probably wound up being a faster paced affair than Coach Sloan would’ve preferred, his team was more than up for the challenge, gaining a 10-point lead by the end of the first quarter, and increasing that gap by one to give them an 11-point lead going into the half.
Benton’s offense in the first half was lead by Ally Gischer who scored 17 points in the first half of the game including two from downtown, and wound up with 19 total for the game. Her teammates accounted for 19 more, giving Benton a 36-25 lead going into the half.
At halftime coach Sloan, while obviously pleased with the results, thought his girls needed to tighten up their a game a little on the defensive end. They did so. In the second half Benton held Meridian to only 18 total points, and in the meantime also produced an offensive explosion courtesy of Makala Abney.
As dominant as Gischer was in the first half, Abney was even more dominant in the second half. Abney, who scored just one basket in the first, accounted for 24 points in the second, and scored 26 overall. Abney was also a formidable presence defensively coming through with over 10 rebounds in the game.
With Abney leading her team in the second half, they turned every possession into an all out battle. At times in the second half, there were so many hard fought struggles on the floor over the ball that it more resembled a football game than a basketball contest.
The Bobcats' top scorer was India Wade who scored 16 points in the game. Rakyah Jeter also contributed 11 points to the Meridian cause, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Benton steamroller.
The Rangerettes will match up against Union County (Ky.) on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m.
