New look Lady Panthers expect to compete
BENTON – It will most definitely be a different look for the Benton Lady Panthers basketball team this year. Winning the 5A South Conference title while going an undefeated 16-0, Benton loses its top five scorers from a season ago when the Lady Panthers finished 24-4.
Gone are graduated seniors Alyssa Houston (15.9 points per game), Madison Mcintire (13.4) and Presley Chism (11.9), with their scoring averages ranking 2 through 4 in Saline County, not to mention Zayyah Bufford’s 9.2 and Addison Davis’
3.1 PPG.
“About 95 percent of what we did went out the door,” Benton longtime Coach Jerry Chumley said. “We’re just trying to pretty much fill the big shoes with committee.”
Of course, it may be a little tougher to fill Houston’s shoes as the All-stater averaged a double-double throughout her career. Houston signed to play softball for Stanford after leading the softball squad to three straight state titles.
“When you lose someone like Alyssa Houston, you’re probably not going to replace her with one kid right off the bat,” Chumley explained.
But, Benton does
return some experience who were role players a season ago.
“Of course we have Ashley Wallace and
Brynn Barbaree back,” Chumley said of the two senior forwards. “Those two have a little bit of experience. They’re playing pretty good right now. Those two are getting better, working hard.”
Chumley also spoke on a trio of juniors looking to fill some shoes, too.
“Mccartney Asher is a junior who is back,” he said. “Lorelei (Davis) is a junior who played some. Emma Welch played a little bit last year. They’re all starters now.”
The Lady Panthers will also get some big help from some youngsters
in sophomores Cam Culclager and Kale Elrod. In fact, Elrod leads the team in scoring through four games, averaging 12.0 points per game.
“It’s a pretty good group,” Chumley said. “Elrod is a sophomore that has some talent. She can shoot the basketball and has go some savvy. She’s a good rebounder
for a 5-7, 5-8 guard. She leads our team in offensive rebounds. We’re liking what Kale’s doing right now.”
Benton also got a nice shot in the arm with the addition of 6-2 junior guard Lexi Duck, who is home-schooled and will provide the Lady Panthers with height and shooting.
“We feel like we’ve got some pieces, we feel like we’ve got a little bit of talent, we just have to figure some things out,” Chumley said. “Not much experience, so we’ve struggled against teams who are athletic and physical early on. We stacked the schedule so we can deal with that and