01/12/2024
BY JACK BULLOCK
PINCKNEYVILLE - It was a special night offensively for the Benton Rangers on Friday as they went into Duster Thomas Gymnasium and came away with a 64-60 victory.

Special in that the offense of the Rangers for Coach Ron Winemiller was impressive.

Hitting 6-of-8 3-point shots in the first quarter, 8-of-12 field goals overall, the Rangers took the lead early and held off the Pinckneyville Panthers late to pick up an important SIRR Mississippi Division victory in front of a large crowd at “The Duster.”

Six-foot-eight junior forward Docker Tedeschi lit up the Panthers with 23-points, including three of the first quarter long range bombs as the Rangers improved to an outstanding 16-3 on the season and are now 5-0 in the division.

Senior guard Isaac Billington added 20-points to the total, as he connect four times from long range, two of which came in the first quarter onslaught.

The Panthers played well enough on Friday night to win most contests they would play, but the Rangers hot start made the up hill climb too much as Pinckneyville fell to 14-5 overall and now 3-2 in the division, a full two-games behind the Rangers.

Coach Matt Laur's club was led by junior forward A.J. Kieth with 15-points while senior guard Hunter Smith added 13.

Six-foot-six senior Karsen Konkel scored 12-points for the Panthers as did junior Riley Bauersachs, as both had to earn the numbers.

“As you well know this is a tough place to come in and win. I thought we did a great job of maintaining Konkel and I thought that Evan (Munoz) did a really good job on Keith,” said Coach Winemiller.

The Rangers overall shooting ended up being 23-of-41, 10-of-20 from the 3-point line.

Tedeschi scored on a couple of spectacular moves, including a spin to the basket for a one-handed slam dunk to open the fourth quarter.

That dunk pushed the lead to 50-40 beginning the fourth quarter.

However it was the beginning that told the tale of this night.

After opening the contest with a Tedeschi 3-pointer, the Rangers only trailed one time.

Konkel hit a pair of free throws followed up by a score inside for a 4-3 early advantage.

This was the only time in which Pinckneyville led.

The Rangers responded with three-consecutive 3-pointers by Tedeschi, Billington and senior guard Luke Melvin to stake themselves to a 12-4 lead.

The advantage soared to 24-14 at the end of the first quarter with 6-3 senior guard Evan Munoz, who ended up with 10-points, scoring on a drive to the basket followed by Billington who added his second long range shot of the frame.

“That is exactly who they are. They shoot the heck out of the ball,” said Coach Laur when talking about Benton. “They're a fantastic 3-point shooting team. Our goal was no uncontested 3's. And we contested some but early in the game they got a couple of uncontested shots and those are automatic for them.”

Tedeschi closed the quarter with 2-of-3 free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt.

Smith scored seven of his points in the second quarter, adding two more 3-pointers and a free throw for the Panthers.

Two free throws by Keith closed out the half as the Panthers still trailed 34-28 at the break.

Pinckneyville managed to cut into the Rangers lead in the third quarter as Keith nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the circle and a pair of scores by Bauersachs.

Billington, however, canned his fourth 3-point shot and a bucket by Munoz just before the third quarter buzzer stretched the lead back to 48-40.

“He (Tedeschi) is a tough matchup. He did a great job slipping that screen and got the dunk to start the fourth quarter. You could just kind of feel the energy back into our team and Evan got a big basket at the end of the third quarter,” said Coach Winemiller. “I thought those were two huge possessions for us.”

(CONTINUED)

The Tedeschi slam to open the final quarter would have likely finished most teams but the Panthers responded with Keith and Bauersachs scoring seven and six points respectively in the final eight minutes.

Keith converted a conventional three-point play while being fouled by Melvin and he later added another shot from just inside the lane to cut the Rangers' lead to just 55-52.

Tedeschi delivered two big plays in the closing minutes to secure the Benton triumph.

He found himself open in the left wing and, after a slight hesitation, launched a 23-footer that found the mark.

On the next possession he cut to the basket and received an assist from sophomore teammate Nolan Schafer as his lay in made it 62-56 with :43 left.

“We got some huge minutes from a sophomore off of the bench (Schafer) when we were dealing with a little foul trouble. It was just a team win. Our guys did a great job of handling their pressure and got some easy stuff down the stretch,” said Coach Winemiller. “I told them the trip to Kentucky (three games) will be worth it if we learn from it. The win puts us two games up in the conference one time through and it is something to build on going into next week.”

Following a pair of Konkel free throws, Billington canned two foul shots to end the drama with :08.5 left.

Another Bauersachs score on a rebound in the final seconds was too little, too late.

Pinckneyville hit just 40.7 of their field goal attempts (22-of-54) for the game, 7-of-19 from deep, which wasn't as good as the Rangers' 56.1 percent.

Both teams took care of the ball, ending with just eight turnovers apiece.

Pinckneyville won the rebounding battle 27-15 but in defense of those totals for Benton, the Panthers had 13 offensive rebounds as they missed more shots and had more second chance chances.

“The fact that we were able to hang in there after them hitting seven 3's in the first half it is a credit to our guys. We cut it to one possession a couple of times late,” said Coach Laur. “But we have to get tougher and be more disciplined. We weren't getting the looks out of the offense that we're supposed to get. But we battled until the final horn.”

Both teams could meet again next week at the 49th annual Benton Invitational Tournament as they are in opposite sides of the bracket.

The Rangers will play Monday night against Sesser-Valier while Pinckneyville will face Vandalia on Tuesday.

Both games will be at 6 pm at Rich Herrin Gymnasium.

“We're really excited about it. We're bringing in two new teams (Carterville, Herrin) and looking forward to the new format (eight-team bracket) and we hope for the same excitement on Saturday night,” said Coach Winemiller.

Benton (64) - Thomas 0 0 0-0 0, Schafer 0 0 0-0 0, Billington 3 4 2-2 20, Owens 1 0 0-0 2, Melvin 3 1 0-0 9, Evan Munoz 2 1 3-4 10, Tedeschi 4 4 3-6 23. 2FG-13, 3FG-10, FT-8-12 , PF-17.
Pinckneyville (60) - Conway 0 1 0-0 3, Teel 0 0 0-0 0, H. Smith 0 4 1-2 13, Laur 1 1 0-0 5, Lietz 0 0 0-0 0, Bauersachs 6 0 0-0 12, Keith 4 1 4-5 15, Bird 0 0 0-0 0, K. Smith 0 0 0-0 0, Konkel 4 0 4-4 12.
2FG-15, 3FG-7, FT-9-111, PF-12.
Fouled Out – None
Technical Fouls – None