The issue for head coach Ron Winemiller and his club?

Not being very accurate when shooting the ball.

When the Rangers found themselves with open opportunities in the first half most of those shots failed to find the mark.

Benton was just 9-of-28 from the floor and they had allowed the visiting Bulldogs to make a 10-0 run to take a 20-17 lead with just over a minute left in the second quarter.

However a big-time buzzer beater from near mid-court for the Rangers tied the game at the half and the second half turned out to be much different for the hosts.

Benton, counting the end of the first half and the early going in the third quarter, outscored Harrisburg 14-0 to take a commanding lead.

The Rangers went 9-of-11 from the field in the third quarter and hammered home the win from the foul line in the fourth quarter of the 56-42 Ohio Division win.

The victory kept the Rangers unbeaten (2-0) in the league and they stand 10-4 overall with a victory in their first contest in 2022.

“I thought that the shots we made in the second half were the ones we were getting in the first half that just didn't go in,” said Coach Winemiller. “I told the kids at halftime that if we get those same shots in the second half that I feel good about us winning. I thought we had good possessions and in the second half the ball went in. We got the big rebounds that we needed.”

“Thirteen” turned out to be a lucky number for a pair of Benton players as senior guard Reid Baumgarte and sophomore guard Luke Melvin each ended up with the “baker's dozen” in points for Coach Winemiller.

Six-four freshman forward Docker Tedeschi added 11-points for the Rangers and sophomore guard Isaac Billington tossed home eight-points, including 4-of-4 from the foul line.

Baumgarte (3-of-4) and Melvin (6-of-8) led Benton to a 13-of-18 showing at the charity stripe in the win.

After the rough beginning, the Rangers ended up 20-of-45 overall for the game, hitting 11-of-17 in the final 16-minutes.

Harrisburg, playing their fourth game in-a-row without head coach Randy Smithpeters who has been under the weather, the Bulldogs have lost three-consecutive games and are 4-8 overall, 0-2 in the Ohio Division.

Assistant coach Erik Griffin saw the Bulldogs get off to a pretty good beginning but the club faltered late in the game in the 14-point road loss.

Only two Harrisburg players, sophomore guard Cameron Ande with 13 and 6-9 senior forward Chris Allen with 10, reached double-figures in scoring.

Senior guard Michael Godsey was held to just four-points in the Bulldogs loss by the Benton defense.

Allen led the Bulldogs with six-rebounds.

Following a decent start, Harrisburg struggled to a 16-of-46 (34.7 percent) shooting performance, which isn't good enough to win in this conference very often.

With both Baumgarte and Tedeschi scoring points in the first quarter, Benton led 9-6.

Tedeschi nailed a 3-pointer off of an inbound play to put the Rangers on the board early and then he scored late in the quarter inside.

Baumgarte made a couple of nice moves in the lane on a drive and a back-door cut for points and a three-point lead at the end of the opening quarter.

A cold spell in the second quarter by the host team led to Harrisburg's best move and biggest lead.

Trailing the Rangers 17-10, Harrisburg got five points from Allen on 1-of-2 free throws and couple of scores in the lane.

A 3-pointer by Ande and a drive in the lane by junior Myles Crank had the Bulldogs in business at 20-17.

However five of the Benton points in the second quarter came from key reserve guard, sophomore Eli Hanson.

Hanson scored early in the quarter on a short bank shot in the paint and then he sparked his teammates with a long 3-pointer that woke up the Rangers and their fans.

Getting the ball near halfcourt, the 5-9 guard launched a running shot that banked home from at least 40-feet as the two teams headed to the half even at 20-20.

As mentioned before, this triggered the second half run the Rangers needed.

Benton hit its first four shots in the third quarter all while getting defensive stops.

Baumgarte and Melvin did scoring damage in the run along with junior guard Landon Crolin scoring twice in the third quarter for four-points.

When Baumgarte closed the 14-0 move with a 3-pointer from the right wing, Benton led 31-20 with 4:02 left.

Harrisburg got to within eight-points three different times in the second half.

Allen scored inside to open up the fourth quarter and Ande scored on a drive to cut the Rangers' lead to just 44-36 with 2:46 remaining.

By this time in the contest Harrisburg needed to foul and Benton was up to the free throw line challenge.

Coach Winemiller saw his club's free throw parade produce 12-of-15 made foul shots in the final 1:59.

“I thought we had really good possessions when we made that run and I thought we did a really good job defensively keeping Godsey (Michael) in front of us. I thought Reid (Baumgarte) did a really good job of that,” said Coach Winemiller. “We lost Ande a little bit but they (Harrisburg) are an explosive, athletic team and I thought for the most part we did a good job defensively.”

Benton ended up with a slight 26-25 rebounding edge and they took care of the ball with just five-turnovers in 32-minutes.

Harrisburg ended up committing 12-turnovers, eight of which (four each quarter) occurred after intermission.

Benton has an important Ohio Division road game at Massac County on Friday night and then they will host Fairfield on Saturday.

The Bulldogs host Murphysboro on Friday night and then travel to Anna-Jonesboro on Saturday.

“We're a young team trying to meld the young and the old together and we are better now than we were two weeks ago and I hope in two weeks we'll be better than we are now,” said Coach Winemiller.

Harrisburg (42) – M. Godsey 1 0 2-2 4, Arde 2 3 0-2 13, Crank 2 1 0-1 7, T. Godsey 2 0 2-4 6, Downey 0 0 0-0 0, McIntosh 0 0 0-0 0, Allen 4 0 2-4 10, lawrence 1 0 0-0 2. 2FG-12, 3FG-4, FT-6-13, PF-17.
Benton (56) – Billington 2 0 4-4 8, Baumgarte 5 0 3-4 13, L. Melvin 2 1 6-8 13, N. Melvin 1 0 0-0 2, Hanson 1 1 0-0 5, Croslin 2 0 0-2 4, Peach 0 0 0-0 0, Tedeschi 4 1 0-0 11. 2FG-17, 3FG-3, FT-13-18, PF-11.
Fouled Out – M. Godsey - Harrisburg.
Technical Fouls – None.