HOT SPRINGS – The Benton Panthers finished out the Spa City Shootout with a 45-41 victory over the Lakeside Rams on Wednesday at Bank of the Ozarks Arena in Hot Springs. The Panthers lost to Mills 59-49 on Monday and beat Fordyce 73-53 Tuesday. On Wednesday, Benton got off to a slow start.
“It wasn’t the prettiest win,” Benton Coach Dexter Hendrix said. “When you play three games in three days, it’s a challenge in a lot of ways. We didn’t play very well in the first half. We missed a lot of easy baskets and didn’t play at the type of intensity we needed to. They were face-guarding a couple of our guys pretty tight.”
Benton (8-3) was down 28-25 at the half, but took control in the third quarter.
“We had a good third quarter and took the lead,” Hendrix said. “They tied it up in the fourth, but we made a couple of big baskets late in the game and ended up winning by four.”
Panther senior guard Clay Anderson had a big game scoring 27 points on 10 of 17 shooting and 7 of 7 from the charity stripe, and added five rebounds and five assists.