Daily Newsletters
Account
Washington Evening Journal
111 North Marion Avenue
Washington, IA 52353
319-653-2191
Benton pulls away from Williamsburg late, defeats Raiders 60-50
Weisskopf and Becker each scored 13 to lead Raiders
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
WILLIAMSBURG — Basketball can often be described as a game of runs.
That fit the bill Tuesday as the Benton Community boys had the last run of the game to pull away from Williamsburg in WaMaC West play for a 60-50 win.
The Raiders cut the lead to one in the fourth, but the Bobcats followed with a 9-0 run capped off by a Brooks Mitchell-Birdsell three-pointer to push the lead back to 10.
Williamsburg started the game off on a run of its own. After a Dylan Weisskopf basket put the Raiders up 8-4, a 7-2 run ended the quarter for a 15-6 Raider lead after one.
Noah Banos and Charley Hoffman each had three-pointers in the run.
The Raiders were holding Benton to tough shots, not giving up anything easy.
“We knew coming in they were all pretty good shooters, and they loved to screen a lot to get us to run into each other,” Weisskopf said. “We were getting through those and getting hands in their face so they couldn’t shoot.”
The Bobcats broke through in the second, going on a 17-7 run to take the lead at 23-22. Hurrying up the Raiders and forcing some turnovers helped the Bobcats to their 29-25 halftime lead.
Six straight points from their leading scorer Eli Patterson jumped the Benton lead to 10 in the third quarter, but then the Raiders went on another run.
Williamsburg closed the quarter on a 11-5 run to cut the lead to four, highlighted by a P.J. Carey steal and score to make the score 40-36.
“The key for us as a team has been slowing it down on offense and getting the ball moving into the right shots,“ Weisskopf said. ”It makes us play really good defense.“
That was certainly the case in the Raiders’ scoring runs throughout the game.
The momentum carried into the fourth as a post up from Griffin Becker picked up Patterson’s fourth foul. Carey followed with a basket on the next possession for the Raiders, and Benton’s lead fell to one at 42-41.
“We just tried to limit [Patterson] getting the ball and get him off his feet to get him in foul trouble to limit him,” Weisskopf said.
The Bobcats’ senior finished with 12 points, most coming at the line.
As Benton pulled away, Becker scored nine of his 13 points to keep the game in single digits until the final point of the game.
Weisskopf and Griffin each scored 13 to lead the Raiders. The Bobcats were led by Kaleb Hayden’s 14 points.
The Raiders dropped to 2-12 overall and 1-9 in conference play.
“It’s just about buying in.” Weisskopf said on the rest of the season. “We’ve had a rough start, but its just about playing for each other, doing the things that work for us and hopefully that gets us going down the stretch.”
