The Benton Lady Panthers picked up their first 6A South win of the season with a 33-21 victory over the Little Rock Hall Lady Warriors on Tuesday in Little Rock.
“We just kind of gutted it out,” Benton Coach Jerry Chumley said. “I was a little disappointed with the 33 points; we had plenty more opportunities to score. But defensively holding them to 21 was really good. I thought we rebounded probably the best we had all year.”
Benton (4-11, 1-1 South) outrebounded Hall 31-23 as senior Abby Clay led the Lady Panthers with 12 points and eight rebounds.
“We did a good job boxing out, not all the time, but a lot better than we have been doing,” Chumley said. “There’s improvement there. We have to continue that.”
Tied 11-11 with 5:09 left until halftime, the Lady Panthers finished the half on a 6-0 run thanks to sophomore Lauren Hopper’s layup and two free throws, and senior Taylor Oglesby’s bucket assisted by Clay for the 17-11 halftime advantage. Benton led despite shooting 5 of 26 (19 percent) in the first half.
“The shooting was poor but the execution was pretty good,” Chumley said. “We were running our [offense] and getting some shots, we just weren’t finishing. We got the looks we wanted, but defensively we kept them off of us.”
Clay and Hopper led the Lady Panthers in the second half, holding Hall at bay.