Lady Panthers end season against Mountain Home
MARTIN COUCH Sports editor

Malvern Benton's Brittany Westerman drives to the hoop. Above right, Mattison Chilton shoots over a Lady Bomber.

The Benton Lady Panthers were proud to make the 6A state tournament for the second year in a row.

Even with 17 loss in their regular season, Benton had intentions of upsetting Mountain Home in the first round of the tournament. Unfortunately, the Lady Bombers came away with a 55-45 victory over Benton at Little Rock Hall.

"We were a little bit flat, but they are a good team," said Lady Panthers head coach Jerry Chumley. "They had good overall team speed and we had to guard with post players on the perimeter and partly that was my fault for not going to a zone."

Mountain Home pressed the Lady Panthers from the outset, but Benton got a 3-pointer from Mandi Haltom for an early lead. The Lady Bombers scored two straight baskets, before Mattison Chilton completed a threepoint play for Benton. Mountain Home scored six straight points to break the tie. Chilton scored again, but three more Lady Bomber points made for a 15-8 lead. Brittany Westerman put in an offensive rebound, scored on a 12-footer and put in a layup to make it a 16-14 game before the Lady Bombers made two free throws with five seconds left in the half.

The third quarter began with Bailey Smith hitting a free throw, but Mountain Home scored four straight. Haltom hit a two-pointer for Benton, but the Lady Bombers inched ahead.

Joanna Curtis made four straight free throws and Westerman put back another offensive rebound to make it a 25-23 game with 3:12 to go in the second quarter, but Mountain Home hit a basket, made a steal and scored on a three-point play.

Haltom put in two free throws, but Mountain Home scored two more baskets before Westerman scored again for Benton to make it a 34-27 game.

Curtis and Haltom scored early in the third period cut the Mountain Home lead to five points. Smith added a basket, but an 8-0 run by the Lady Bombers opened up the gap to 13 points, 46-22 with 2:20 remaining in the third quarter.

Smith made another basket and Kara Reynolds hit a 3- pointer, but Mountain Home led 48-38. Smith scored Benton's first basket of the fourth quarter with 3:50 to play and Curtis put in a free throw. Reynolds got a basket and Haltom scored again

Malvern to make it a 10-point game. "It was just one of those situations where we did a lot of things we wanted them to do, but we fouled too much and put them on the free throw line," Chumley said. "That's the problem. We were playing aggressive, but you can't put a good team like that on the free throw line - it's two every time. Their press hurt us, but we were still down by just seven and it probably should have been a lot more. They didn't make many perimeter shots and that kept us in there."

The Lady Panthers committed 19 turnovers in the first half of the game.

"Nineteen turnovers in one half, we were fortunate not to be out of it," Chumley added. "The kids hung in there and didn't wait. They played hard for the whole 32 minutes."

Westerman and Chilton will graduate and leave a team with a newly-revived tradition of making the state tournament every year.

"It's a real good experience for our underclassmen," Chumley said. "I hate to say good bye to our seniors. They have been great leaders for our team, but it's part of the process. You welcome that experience that

we got. I saw some hunger in

the eyes of the young ones like Malvern they wanted to get back in this. I think now, we'll go to work and get better."