Sylvan Hills beats Benton for season sweep
SHERWOOD – Falling in a 65-62 overtime heartbreaker to Sylvan Hills at home to begin 5A Central Conference play in Benton, the Benton Lady Panthers had a horrible third quarter on the road against the Lady Bears Friday in which Sylvan Hills pulled away for a 59-51 win in Sherwood.
The loss puts the Lady Panthers at 12-6 overall, 3-3 in league play, while Sylvan Hills moves to 8-4, 4-2 with the win.
Down 31-24 at the half, the third quarter started well for the Lady Panthers as sophomore Alyssa Houston scored down low to make it a 31-26 ballgame, but the Lady Bears responded in a big way as sophomore Jianna Morris made a bucket to start an 8-0 run Morris capped with a three for the 39-26 advantage before Benton freshman Wesleigh Ferguson’s layup stopped the bleeding for the 39-28 game with just under five minutes to go.
Sylvan Hills took control from that point, finishing the quarter on another 8-0 run to lead 47-28 going into the fourth.
“It was just a bad quarter for us offensively,” Benton Coach Jerry Chumley said. “I thought their physicality on our guards took us out of our execution. We couldn’t get the ball in the spots we like to run our offense. They kind of just pushed us out. They just kind of bullied us. They shot the ball well, too.”
The Lady Panthers fought back in the fourth, though. Benton started the final frame on a 14-4 run to get within 51-42 at the 2:43
mark, but Morris would come up big for the Bears again, hitting 8 of 8 from the free-throw line the rest of the way. Morris finished with a game-high 28 points, including 17 in the second half.
“We started pressing in the fourth quarter and got them to turn it over some, but we could never really get over that 9- to 10-point hump,” Chumley said. “We needed a big shot to try to get a long run going. We had to foul some, and Morris went 8 for 8 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter kind of sealed it for them.
“Our kids didn’t quit. They played hard the whole time. We didn’t play well the whole time, but we played hard. That lull in the third quarter got us. We withstood their run in the first half. Sylvan Hills played really well. No. 22 (Morris) put on a show.”
The Lady Panthers led the game early before the Lady Bears went on a 3-point spree to get up by double figures early before Benton cut it to a 19-16 deficit after one quarter.
“They came out and hit a bunch of threes on us in the first quarter,” Chumley said. “They had four threes in the first quarter. We played well. We came out and scored off the tip and scored 16 points in the quarter, which is a good quarter for us, but they were on fire.”
Sylvan Hills went back up by double figures for a short time in the second, but the Lady Panthers fought back to make it a 31-24 halftime deficit.
For Benton, sophomore Madison Mcintire led the way with 19 points, with sophomore Alyssa Houston adding 14 points, 11 rebounds and seven steals. Ferguson finished with nine points, with sophomore Presley Chism and senior Tuesday Melton adding four each.
Benton plays next on Tuesday, hitting the road to play Little Rock Christian in more 5A Central play.