Down 12 early in the fourth quarter, the Benton Lady Panthers would tie the E-Stem Lady Mets 37-37 on freshman Isabella “Izzie” Arnold’s lay up with 27.4 seconds left. But the Mets would get a buzzer-beating 8-foot jumper from sophomore Brooklynn May to give E-Stem the 39-37 win at Benton Arena on Tuesday night. Despite the loss, Benton Coach Jerry Chumley was proud of the the Lady Panthers for fighting back.
“That told me a lot,” he said. “We learned that’s the kind of team we’re going to have. We didn’t have anybody dropping their heads, moping about being down. We just kept playing, kept battling and playing basketball and we’re right back in it. I was proud of that, very proud.”
The Lady Panthers played excellent pressure defense all night, but couldn’t get things going offensively as they shot just 11 of 33 (33 percent) from the field. Benton did get off to a good start as two free throws from junior Italei Gray and a 10-foot jumper from senior Lenzie “Lu” Newman put the Lady Panthers up 4-0 with 7:06 left in the first.
But, the Mets countered with a 7-0 run before Gray picked up an offensive rebound and put back. E-Stem closed the first quarter on a 4-0 run for the 10-6 lead after one.
- Read the rest in Wednesday's The Saline Courier