Manchester Academy got the better of rival Benton Academy on the hard court on Monday night.
The Mavericks and Lady Mavericks were each able to come out of the rivalry game with a big district win.
Lady Mavericks 37,
Lady Raiders 25
The Lady Mavericks and Lady Raiders locked their proverbial horns in the first high school game of the evening, and it was a defensive battle.
For half of the first quarter, Benton led the contest 1-0.
Then Manchester caught fire, scoring the final seven points of the quarter.
In the second quarter, the scoring more than doubled, and Benton came out on top by outscoring Manchester 9-8.
Still, Manchester took a 15-10 lead into the half.
Benton Academy head coach Casey Arbuckle was pleased with how her team played defensively in the first half.
“They are super talented offensively,” Arbuckle said. “They have all the ingredients of a strong offensive team. I’m very proud of how our team held them down in the first half.”
The Lady Mavericks caught fire in the third quarter, outscoring the Lady Raiders 18-6, making it a 33-16 game.
Benton scratched and clawed and did whatever they could to catch up, but they only outscored Manchester 9-4 in the fourth, making the final 37-25.
Arbuckle’s strategy almost worked to perfection.
Missed free throws were the only thing haunting them.
“Our plan was to slow things down and limit how much time they spent in transition offense,” Arbuckle said. “We wanted to have time to set up our half-court defense. On the year, we’ve made 65-75% of our free throws, so we wanted to get to the line. That worked. We shot 30 free throws. The problem is that we didn’t shoot our normal percentage. We only made 13. We left 17 free points out there.”
Madilyn Manor led the Lady Raiders with 15 points in the defeat.
Avery Eldridge made some layups down the stretch on her way to seven points.
Mavericks 62,
Raiders 28
On the boys’ side, Manchester’s Mavericks jumped all over the Raiders, jumping out to an early lead that they would not lose.
They went up 21-8 over their rivals in the first quarter.
Things got no better for Benton in the second quarter, where they were outscored by Manchester 24-10, making it a 45-18 game at the half.
In the second half, Manchester outscored Benton 17-10 in the second half.
The Mavericks won the game by a score of 62-28.
Parks Poe led the Mavericks with 20 points in the victory. He also racked up four rebounds and a steal.
Christopher Guthrie also went 2-for-3 from deep on his way to 14 points. He also had a team-high seven rebounds, two assists, and a steal.
Upton Hitt was right behind Guthrie with 10 points of his own to go with a team-high four steals and an assist.
Cody Prescott and Hayden Middleton were the leading scorers for Benton with seven points each.
To Manchester head coach Jacob Isles, this game was a huge opportunity to get some work in before some big games down the stretch.
“We got a district win, and that was much needed,” Isles said. “That was our second time to beat them. We made shots, rebounded well, tipped some shots, and did all the other things we needed to get a big lead. It was a good opportunity to get our guys some work. Anytime you can work on some different defensive principles and sets on the fly, that’s a good thing.”
The win put the Mavericks’ record at 8-15.
It isn’t where Isles wanted to be at this point.
“Being a .500 team is out the window,” Isles said. “We didn’t win enough in the non-conference. We had three leads slip away. We fell flat in some games. We had some canceled due to snow and ice that we hopefully would have won.”
In the district, however, the Mavericks are 3-2 and sitting pretty at second place.
With the district tournament looming, Isles believes his team can position themselves to get some wins and keep the team moving forward.
“District games are more important than non-district,” Isles said. “We’re working on our district seeding now. We have both Greenville schools (Greenville Christian and St. Joe), Tri-County, and then Indianola for senior night. We want to be in the 2-3 seed range. We need to position ourselves for success in the district tournament.”
If all goes well at the district tournament, things can get interesting for the Mavericks.
According to Isles, his biggest goal for the season is still at play for the team.
“Getting to the state tournament was my goal coming into the season,” Isles said. “You want to be able to say you were one of the final eight teams standing. Once you get there, anything can happen.”
The Mavericks and Lady Mavericks faced Greenville Christian on Tuesday night, but it was not upon completion by press time.
Both teams will face off with St. Joe on Thursday night for a road battle seeding implications.
Tip-off is set for approximately 6 p.m.
Benton will return to action on Thursday night when they host Greenville Christian.
Tip-off is set for approximately 6 p.m.
