LEEDS — Benson County has ascended from the preseason No. 6 to the midseason No. 1 in Class B girls’ basketball.
“You can’t pretend it’s not there,” head coach Bryan Kenner said. “Rankings don’t matter this time of the year. But the same token, it matters from the standpoint that we get everybody’s best look. And I told the girls, ‘If you think you’re a No. 1 team, play like it and act like it. Make the fans think that you look like you’re the best team in the state.’”
And the Wildcats did just that on Tuesday, extending their undefeated season to 11 games. In a cross-lake showdown, No. 1 Benson County (11-0, 1-0) handled business against Nelson County (6-6, 1-2) with a 62-25 win.
Benson County trailed for most of the first quarter, but it swung ahead with an 18-0 run and held a 22-point lead at halftime.
“I kind of thought this is how it was gonna go; it’s really tough to keep that intensity every single night,” Kenner said. “Credit to Nelson County: They came out really aggressive right away.”
Aubrey Kenner led Benson County with 23 points, while Lacie Fautsch had 18 and Kaitlyn Maddock scored 12. The Wildcats allowed just seven points after halftime and came only a couple seconds away from allowing zero points in the fourth quarter.
A three-pointer by Cara Sateen got Nelson County on the board first. Benson County forced a shot-clock violation and got a couple of stops on Brandi Lippert, and the Wildcats squeezed ahead on baskets by Maddock and Fautsch. It took them until 5:35 in the first quarter to score any points, but they briefly went ahead 4-3.
Mya Luehring put Nelson County back ahead. The Wildcats, including their star player, Kenner, struggled to find open looks. Dagan Slade, who led Nelson County with seven points off the bench, made it 7-4 Chargers.
“They did some things that got them some looks,” B. Kenner said. “We missed a few shots. Then we came back, settled down and started rolling.”
Benson County managed to tie it back up at 2:57 on a layup by A. Kenner. She also tipped away a pass and had a put-back to get the Wildcats on top. They led by a still narrow 11-7 at the end of the first quarter.
“I was a little disappointed in our man defense a little bit tonight,” Kenner said. “We got a little bit undisciplined and steal-happy.”
They found their groove as the first half wore on, though, and Nelson County had little response. The Chargers didn’t score until 5:24 in the second quarter. The Wildcats still missed the occasional layup, but they consistently forced stops and received relentless attacks on the rim from Kenner and Fautsch. Kenner had 12 points in the second quarter, including a three-pointer, while Fautsch had 10.
“It’s completely changed how teams can defend us because of what [Fautsch]’s doing inside,” Kenner said. “Teams have been trying to take our guards away for a while. Now that we’ve got that post game that’s really stepped up a notch this year with what Lacie’s doing for us, it’s opened a lot of stuff up offensively.”
Benson County went into the halftime break leading 40-18. The Wildcats outscored the Chargers 29-11 in the second quarter.
“We are a team of runs,” Kenner said. “Our defense leads to our offense. I think people that have watched us play know that. We’ve almost kind of gotta get rolling on defense a little bit to get that offense going. And that’s what happened tonight. It just took a little longer than normal, honestly, to get there.”
Kenner put up six more in a 15-5 third quarter for Benson County. She also hit her second triple of the game in the fourth quarter.
The team cruised on to a 30-plus margin of victory. Nelson County went nearly the entire fourth quarter without scoring, even missing a pair of free throws. Slide got one in the bucket as the final seconds on the game clock ticked down; had the shot missed, Benson County would have had a shutout quarter.
In any case, the Wildcats could go home happy with their first district win of the season and their undefeated record still intact.
“We’ve been improving,” Kenner said. “I always tell the girls, ‘We’ve gotta get better every game. And we find things to get better at. Now there’s things that sometimes go the wrong direction, and then we go to practice and we refocus and we work on it, but we’re trying to get better every game.”
