Panthers top Sheridan 55-41; Lady Panthers fall 58-37
The Benton Panthers used a dominant fourth quarter to outlast Sheridan 55-41 Thursday.
Defense was the main factor behind Benton claiming this home league victory. The Panthers pressured Sheridan throughout the game. Their extremely active defense made the biggest impact in the fourth quarter.
The Panthers limited Sheridan to just 2 points in the fourth as they pulled away for the win. Those points by Sheridan came via the free throw line.
“The pressure helped,” said Panther Coach Dexter Hendrix. “Give Sheridan credit, they played well. They handled our press well. But we found out that we can still win even when we don’t shoot the ball well. We always want to start everything with our defense and finish everything with our defense. Our defense won this game for us – especially in the fourth quarter.”
At the start of the final quarter, Benton held a 42-39 lead.
However, the Panthers eventually took over and while defense was the main reason why, the host team also got off to a great start offensively in the final quarter. Benton, through getting offensive contributions from numerous players, built its lead to 50-39 before Sheridan called a timeout with 3:08 left to play.
But the Panthers had the momentum, and they didn’t allow the timeout to interrupt their run.
Benton continued to pressure Sheridan defensively. Against the press, the Yellowjackets often took rushed shots or made bad passes – both of which played into the hands of Benton. With just under 90 seconds remaining, what was a close, entertaining game was now fully in favor of Benton which led 54-39.
“We got on the offensive glass,” Hendrix said of his team’s surge. “We got a couple of offensive rebounds, a couple of layups and some easy shots. Once we got a couple of layups – that took some pressure off of us. That was important to the start we had in the fourth quarter. We got easy shots at the basket which opened up a lot for us.”
With 59.9 seconds left in the fourth, Sheridan scored its first points of the quarter when Noah Romine made a pair of free throws.
When the game was complete, Benton had earned a 55-41 win.
The Panthers – who led 27-26 at the intermission – received a huge scoring boost from Terrion Burgess who had 23 points. AD Gray and Javarious Russell scored 8 points apiece.
Romine led the way for Sheridan with 13.
In the girls contest, Sheridan led by as much as 25 before Benton made a run. However, the Lady Panthers could not get over the hump losing 58-37.
At the start of the second half, Benton faced a 40-16 deficit in this conference matchup. Sheridan was able to keep Benton from making much of a run in the third. However,
in the fourth, the Lady Panthers enjoyed a nice spurt.
Benton used a fullcourt press that gave Sheridan fits. The pressure disrupted the Lady Yellowjackets’ offensive groove and gave Benton some much-needed momentum. With 3:22 left to play the Lady Panthers cut Sheridan’s advantage to 50-35 when Mccartney Asher made a 3-pointer.
But Sheridan finally bounced back to outscore Benton 8-2 during the remaining moments of the game en-route to the victory.
Benton’s scoring leader was Asher who had 13 points.
For the Lady Yellowjackets, the top scorer was Lilly Reid with 14 while Addison Hill and Kayden Porter scored 11 points apiece.