The basketball season for Benton Academy's Lady Raiders ended last Tuesday night when they were unable to keep pace with St. Joe in the first round of the district tournament.
Benton Academy head coach Casey Arbuckle was hit hard by the loss.
"It was heartbreaking for me" Arbuckle said. "I took a couple of days off to recover from it. Having a long weekend helped a lot."
Going into the game, she knew it would be a battle. Arbuckle felt that defense would be the key to a win for her team.
"We had the sense that it would be a low scoring game," Arbuckle said. "They were quicker than us and better in transition, so we didn't want it to become that type of game. We mixed it up big time on defense. We threw a lot at them. I knew it would take a big defensive effort to win."
And low scoring it started. Benton had a strong defensive effort in the first quarter, holding St. Joe to only five points while scoring eight of their own.
In the second quarter, Benton Academy star Madilyn Manor picked up her third foul of the game.
As Arbuckle discussed strategy with her sub, the game began again, and the sub was forced to wait to go into that game.
In that brief moment, Manor was charged with an offensive foul, giving her four for the game with five minutes remaining in the half.
Without their leader on the court, the Lady Raiders were outscored 21-8 in the second quarter, making it a 26-16 game at the half.
As the third quarter began, Manor still sat, but in her place, others stepped up.
Avery Eldridge hit two 3-pointers to start the third quarter, cutting the lead to four points.
Unfortunately for the Lady Raiders, they were unable to keep that momentum, and they dropped the quarter 15-9, bringing the score to 41-25 with only a quarter left to play.
Manor returned to the game in the fourth quarter, and they outscored St. Joe 13-12, but it wasn't enough. Benton's season ended with a 53-38 loss to St. Joe.
For Arbuckle and the Lady Raiders, the loss highlighted issues that have plagued them during district play.
"It has been a common theme for us here at the end of the season," Arbuckle said. "We had a terrible shooting percentage and a ton of turnovers. We forced a good bit of turnovers, but we weren't able to capitalize on them as well as they did.”
Avery Eldridge led the way offensively for Benton with 12 points and six rebounds.
Gracie Manor chipped in 10 points and eight steals in the losing effort.
Despite her limited playing time, Madilyn Manor still ended up with eight points and six rebounds.
The improvement in the Lady Raiders from last year to this year was massive, and Arbuckle felt pride in that.
But her goals are set a bit higher.
"We won 13 games this year," Arbuckle said. "We won three last year. We competed in a lot of games that we wouldn’t have been in a year ago. Next year I expect to be in the north state tournament. We've got to find some offense next year, but our goal is to be there in the end."
