The Benton Panthers opened 6A/5A district play with a 68-58 win over the Watson Chapel Wildcats on the road Tuesday to improve to 11-3 overall, 1-0 in district play.
“It’s nice to start 1-0 in conference, that’s for sure,” Benton Coach Jerry Chumley said. “We knew coming in that Watson Chapel is a very dangerous team, very talented. They really did a good job rebounding and did a good job pushing the ball in transition.”
It was a total team effort on Tuesday for Benton as the Panthers took a 20-14 lead after one quarter and kept the six-point advantage, 32-26, at halftime.
“I’m really, really proud of our seniors and the guys we really rely on for leadership,” Hendrix said. “Shaheed Halk, Westin Riddick and Fred Harris really had big, big games for us. I’ve coached a lot of basketball and I probably saw one of the best high-school dunks I’ve seen in a long time from Shaheed. It was an incredible dunk. It was two hands on about two or three guys.”
Riddick scored 21 points, hitting 10 of 12 from the free-throw line.