After a grueling double overtime loss on the final day of the Benton Holiday Classic on Saturday in Benton, the Benton Lady Panthers picked up a good win at home against a tough El Dorado Lady Wildcats team Monday. The Lady Panthers beat El Dorado 39-36 to improve to 6-7 on the season before their conference opener tonight at Benton Arena. Tipoff for tonight’s game will be 6 p.m.
“It was just a hard, grinding game,” Benton Coach Jerry Chumley said. “Both teams were playing good defense. Their athletes were ahead of us athletically, but our kids took four charges in the first half and it was really one of our best defensive efforts as far as four full quarters.”
Down 10-8 after one quarter, the Lady Panthers turned up their defensive pressure in the second to lead 20-15 at the half.
“You’re not going to keep athletes out of the lane all the time and off the boards all the time, but for the matchup I thought we did a great job defensively,” Chumley said. “I was really proud of our effort there. It was a good bounce-back game against a good team after the Sheridan double overtime loss on Saturday.”