Lady Panthers earn postseason honors
BENTON – After one of their toughest years in going 6-19 the previous season, the Benton Lady Panthers won eight more games this past season in finishing 14-10. It was the youngsters who led the turnaround as three underclassmen earned postseason honors recently.
Benton sophomore
Alyssa Houston earned All-conference and Allstate honors, while sophomore Madison Mcintire and freshman Wesleigh Ferguson both picked up Allconference accolades.
Houston was a dominant player in the post for the
Lady Panthers, leading Saline County with 16.6 and 11.0 rebounds per game.
“She put up All-state numbers all year long, so that was a given,” Benton Coach Jerry Chumley said of Houston.
The Lady Panther sophomore scored a career-high of 30 points in consecutive games against White Hall and Parkview as Chumley thinks Houston’s name will be in the record books before all is said and done.
“I think she can go down as one of the best ones ever come through here,” he said. “Caroline Starr is kind of considered one of the best players to ever play at Benton. Maybe Brandy Chumley (Chumley’s wife) is right in there. Alyssa has a chance to … she’s going to be a 1,000
point scorer easy. Just put her name in the books here for a long time. She’s that kind of player.”
The other sophomore honoree, Mcintire, provided excellent defense for Benton while providing some offensive prowess averaging 7.4 points per game, while also handling the rock the majority of the game. Not only that, Mcintire gives the Lady Panthers fight.
“She hates to lose and will fight you for any reason, that’s what I love about her,” Chumley said. “She’s going to work hard and she deserves that All-conference because she played tough. Played great defense always having to guard the other team’s best player. They don’t compete any harder than her.”
Ferguson impressed as a freshman in her first varsity experience, averaging 11.1 points per game, which was second best on the team and fifth in the county. Averaging double figures as a freshman is impressive in its own right, but Chumley said Ferguson will be even better when she gets more selfconfidence.
“Wesleigh is so skilled,” the coach said. “When her mind catches up with her skill, as far as thinking she’s a good player … she doesn’t believe that she’s a heck of a player. When she coordinates her mind with her skill, the sky’s going to be the limit for her.”
Though the Lady
Panthers will be losing a couple productive seniors, they have a lot of talent returning.
“Losing Tuesday (Melton) is big because she’s a glue player for us,” Chumley said. “Didn’t put up great numbers but did so many things outside of the stat sheet that helped you win. And Jordan Miller, they’re staples in our program the last couple of years.”
Benton also returns juniorto-be Presley Chism, who was third on the team with a 7.9 scoring average, and several others that saw some solid varsity experience.
“What we’ve got coming back, we’re excited,” Chumley said. “What we have coming up from the junior high makes us a little deeper. We just have to put it together and make more shots this year.”