01-20-2020
BY JACK BULLOCK
BENTON - It was a milestone night at Rich Herrin Gymnasium on Monday as the Benton Rangers kicked off their 47th annual event.

Head coach Ron Winemiller picked up his 200th win at the school and junior guard Reece Johnson reached the 1,000 point club as the Rangers cruised past long time rival Hamilton County 51-34 in the finale of the three game opening night.

Johnson's 12 points led the Rangers balanced attack as they broke a 2-2 tie with a 14-3 run to close out the first quarter as the hosts never trailed as they improved to 14-4 on the year.

Six-foot-five junior Jacob Seidel added 11 points for Coach Winemiller's Rangers while sophomore Reid Baumgarte and junior Wyatt McClintock tossed in nine and eight.

“To be only the third guy to do it with Coach Herrin and Coach Taborn, anytime your name can be mentioned with those guys is a really, really special thing,” said Coach Winemiller. “It's not something that I take likely, for sure.”

Head coach Doug Miller's Foxes have shown a lot of improvement this season but there is still more work to do as Hamilton County fell to 9-10 overall.

The Foxes were led in scoring by sophomore guard Tyce Gordon and senior Gus Walden with eight points apiece while senior guard Evan Shelton added seven.

The two clubs met early in the season at the Goreville Invitational Tournament with the Rangers winning in overtime, 43-38, in the 2019-20 opener for both teams.

The Rangers had success against Ham Co. in the first game by employing a 1-3-1 zone defense but didn't do as well while playing man-to-man.

Coach Winemiller and the Rangers stuck with the zone on Monday night and it paid off.

Hamilton County didn't shoot the ball well (12-of-38 overall) and committed an unsightly 24 turnovers, including 11 in a third quarter where they had chances to cut into the Rangers' lead.

Benton wasn't pretty offensively, either, but the defense bailed them out as they are now 1-0 in the BIT.

The Rangers offset 16 turnovers by shooting 21-of-42 overall from the floor.

Hamilton County actually did well on the glass, grabbing a 27-18 overall advantage over Benton.

“We wanted to slow the game down and get them out of that zone but we didn't care of the ball well enough early in the game to do that,” said Coach Miller. “We kept missing shots and throwing it away, which is a bad combination. Give Benton credit. They ran a 1-3-1 against us at the Goreville Tournament and when they went man-to-man we rallied and got it into overtime. So I knew he (Coach Winemiller) was going to zone against us tonight. You still have to make shots and you still have to make stops. We had too many dead stretches in the game.”

Seidel helped the Rangers get off to an early offense start by scoring nine of his points in the first eight minutes.

Benton turned four of the Foxes turnovers into points with Seidel finishing a fast break and McClintock added a conventional three-point play.

A basket by Reid Baumgarte closed the quarter for the Rangers as they held a 16-5 lead.

Johnson then got going in the second quarter, hitting a pair of shots from the field and adding 1-of-2 free throws.

His jumper from near the foul line with 3:46 to go not only put his team up 21-5 but it pushed him to the 1,000th point of his career.

After playing at Neoga for his first two prep seasons, the 6-foot-1 junior reached this milestone in just a little over two years of varsity play.

Hamilton County made their best run of the night to close out the first half.

Coach Miller's Foxes ended the second quarter on a 10-2 run, with an unlikely 3-pointer from Gordon triggering the scoring spree.

Gordon was trying to feed the ball into the post on a lob pass that went through the net that counted as a 3-pointer.

Shelton scored twice in the run while senior guard Brandon Peters converted a three-point play off of a steal and fast break.

When Shelton scored in the lane with under :05 remaining, Hamilton County was down just 23-15 at the break.

The highlight from Hamilton County in the third quarter was Walden as he scored eight of the teams' 11 points.

His bucket to open the quarter cut the Rangers' lead down to just six.

But eleven Foxes turnovers the remainder of the frame turned out to be too much to overcome.

Scores by senior guard Brad Hammond (3-pointer) and senior forward Carson Lewis (reverse lay in) along with a steal and fast break score by Johnson gave Benton a 40-26 lead heading to the fourth quarter.

Baumgarte slammed the door shut with seven straight points.

A conventional three-point point lay opened the final frame and he scored in the lane on a pass from Lewis.

Two more free throws and the Rangers led 47-26 with 5:47 remaining.

Johnson and senior guard Blake Stewart finished off the rout with baskets as the lead ballooned to 51-30.

The milestones of the night weren't lost on Coach Winemiller, a Hamilton County/McLeansboro graduate, who reached the 200 wins against his old team.

Johnson, who is the son of former McLeansboro standout Benjamin “Benjy” Johnson, reached the scoring plateau against his dad's former team.

Benton's defensive effort allowed them to keep Hamilton County at a distance as they prepare for the rest of the grueling week of basketball.

The Rangers will face tournament newcomer Vandalia on Wed night at 5:30 pm while Hamilton County will match up with state and ABV 2A ranked Pinckneyville at 7 pm.

“I thought we did a good job on applying pressure with our zone. I thought Reid, Carson and Reece did a good job of keeping them off balance,” said Coach Winemiller. “Then we got some easy baskets, too. Last time they struggled against our zone so we stayed in it tonight. They (Hamilton County) never made enough shots to make us adjust.”

Coach Bob Waggoner got points from eight different players as Pinckneyville improved to 17-2 on the season.

Senior's Dawson Yates (14) and senior Devin Kitchen (10) were double-figure scorers while senior Hunter Riggins, junior Dre Scott and senior Grant Tanner each scored six points in the blowout.

Sesser-Valier saw their mark slip to 11-8 on the season with their lowest scoring output of the season.

Coach Shane Garner's club didn't put a player in double-digits in scoring as sophomore Gavin Woodland led the Red Devils with just seven points.

Yates scored 10 of his points in the first quarter as the Panthers controlled the game as they are now 1-0 in the BIT.

The Panthers were a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line.