The Chillicothe Lady Hornets were facing a familiar foe Friday night as they traveled to Benton High School. In each of the last two seasons, Benton had finished undefeated in conference, beaten Chillicothe in the district title game, and advanced to the state championship. The Lady Hornets ensured the first part of that combination would not occur for a third straight year as Chillicothe defeated Benton 49-39 to end the Lady Cardinals 16 game conference winning streak spanning across three seasons.
Coach Darren Smith’s team entered the contest anticipating a battle, and that is exactly what it was early. With just over a minute to play before halftime the score was tied at 16. Kayanna Cranmer converted a traditional three point play, and then Lydia Bonderer secured an offensive rebound and put-back at the buzzer to give Chillicothe a 5 point halftime lead. The Lady Hornets continued that momentum with selfless basketball and stingy defense in the 3rd quarter where they held Benton to just 4 points in the period while pulling away to take a 35-20 lead into the 4th. It was a true team effort for Chillicothe, as four players, Cranmer, Liz Oliver, Delanie Kieffer and Jolie Bonderer finished with double figures in the 49-39 victory.
Class 4 #3 Chillicothe improves to 15-1 on the season and 3-0 in the MEC while Benton drops to 12-7 and 2-1 in conference. The Lady Hornets will play again on Monday at Centralia.
Chillicothe 12 21 35 49
Benton 9 16 20 39
Individual scoring:
Chillicothe – Oliver 12, Cranmer 11, Kieffer 10, J. Bonderer 10, Lyla Beetsma 4, L. Bonderer 2
Benton – Eliana Arambula 19, Andrea Simmons 5, Avery Morlock 5, Emma Loehnig 5, Jerzey Ziolkowski 3, Jalynn Brown 2
