After a long and successful week of tough competitors, the Benton Rangers (18-1), who were so far undefeated in the tournament, finally earned their second-straight Benton Invitational Tournament Saturday night with a 52-42 victory over the Pinckneyville Panthers.
“It’s the best feeling in the world,” said senior Timmy Henson, after the championship victory. “This home crowd was amazing…the student section and fans were incredible.”
“The atmosphere was unbelievable,” senior Derek Oxford added. “We were really amped up for this game because they (Pinckneyville) beat us last time and we wanted to get them back.”
But before they could take on the Panthers in the evening, the Rangers needed to face the Meridian Bobcats in the morning.
The home team made quick work of putting away their fifth victory; their all-around team effort earned them the 65-39 win with nine of their players adding points to the score. (Wills, 13 points; Page, 12 points; Oxford, 11 points; Williams, 7 points; Wynn, 6 points; Pankey, 6 points; Henson, 5 points; Thomas, 3 points; and Lutz, 2 points).
Their starters sat for most of the fourth quarter to save their energy for the championship game against the also undefeated Panthers.
In their own tournament, Pinckneyville rallied in the fourth quarter to push past the Rangers and take that championship. This time around, the Rangers hoped to dish out a little payback and after four quarters of fast-paced basketball, the home team defeated their SIRR conference foes and took the title.
“This is just a fun thing to be a part of,” said Ron Winemiller, Rangers coach. “It’s a great honor for this group of kids. It was a great team win, I thought defensively we were as good as what we have been all year, in the first especially.”
The Rangers opened the championship game with a quick 7-point run by Austin Wills (12 points) who drained a jumper and a 3-pointer in the first two minutes. He was followed by Henson (8 points) who added a jumper to expand the lead to 7-0 with half of the first quarter gone.
The Panthers were not able to tally points until there were only 3 minutes left in the first; then, Grant Jausel went to the free throw line and drained three shots to put his team on the board.
Moments later, Jausel landed a 3-pointer and then Alex Howard added a solo free throw to almost dissolve the Rangers’ lead (9-7).
Rangers’ Gehrig Wynn (10 points) added a last minute jumper to keep his team ahead by four points after one quarter (11-7).
Wynn continued his scoring in the second quarter by opening with a long trey. The Panthers responded when Tyler Rulevish went to the free throw line and sunk one of his two opportunities.
Parker Williams (8 points) got on the board for the Rangers with two jumpers while Wynn and Wills both added their second 3-pointers to give their team a 24-9 lead.
But the Panthers would not go down easy and with just five seconds until halftime, Jausel added a 3-pointer. However, the Rangers nullified the points as Cade Thomas added his own trey when the buzzer sounded.
“They had a really hard time scoring when we set our defense,” Winemiller said. “That was the key to get back and set our defense to make it hard on them.”
With a 15 point lead (27-12) going in the second half of the game, the Rangers remained hopeful, but also knew from their first game against the Panthers that the points could easily go the other direction if they didn’t stay focused.
“It’s definitely a game of runs,” Oxford said. “Last time they went on a big run to beat us so I think we learned our lesson and kept our composure.”
The Panthers opened the scoring in the third quarter, but the Rangers responded by adding a trey by Oxford (11 points). Still, the goal did not shake the Panthers who added back-to-back jumpers by Rulevish.
By the end of the quarter, the Rangers were able to maintain their lead, but the Panthers were able to close the gap to nine points (36-27).
Then in the final quarter, the Panthers went on an early 8-point rally to come within one (38-37) and it looked as if history might repeat itself.
“You don’t want to think about it during the game, but we had that in our heads the whole time,” Wills said after the win. “We remembered what happened before and how we let up in the second quarter…we didn’t want that to happen again.”
So the Rangers bounced back and earned many of their remaining points at the free throw line. Williams drained two free throws and then followed up with a jumper while the Panthers only sunk a solo free throw by Howard.
Oxford drained two free throws as well before Henson made back-to-back trips to the line with just under one minute left in the game. He sunk all four of his opportunities to give his team a 10-point lead (48-38).
With 25 seconds left, Oxford went to the line again for the Rangers and he tallied two more free throws for his team. The Panthers desperately tried to catch their opponents with one final trey from Jausel, but Oxford was fouled again and once again drained two free throws to end the scoring.
The home team only needed to kill off 15 seconds before celebrating their victory with their home crowd who rushed the court at the sound of the final buzzer.
“To pull it out strong at the end feels great,” Wills said while he celebrated with friends on the court.
“You have to be extra on top of your game [when playing Pinckneyville] and I think we were tonight,” Winemiller said. “I think we’re evenly matched, they’re a good team and they won’t get beaten too much more this year.”
After the game, the members of the All-Tournament team were selected. Among those named were Rangers Oxford, Wills and Henson.
“Now I can look back on it and be proud that I won the BIT in my last two years of high school,” Oxford said while cradling the BIT championship trophy. “It’s a win for all of us, the team, the coaches and the whole community.”
