By Jim Muir

The Benton Middle School 8^th grade basketball team moved into Saturday’s Hamilton County Regional championship game with a convincing 53-20 victory over cross-county rival West Frankfort.

Derek Oxford led the way for Benton with 22 points and 12 rebounds – his 10^th consecutive game with 20-plus points – and Austin Wills scored 13 points and added three rebounds, three steals and two assists in the lopsided victory that improved the Junior Rangers to 19-4 overall.

BMS will face the host Hamilton County Foxes in Saturday’s regional title game that will tip off at 10 a.m.

Coach John Cook’s team jumped out to a 12-5 first quarter lead, extended it to 26-14 at the intermission and then put the game on ice by outscoring the Redbirds 19-4 in the third quarter.

Cook  has mixed and matched his eighth and seventh grade players this year and many times the seventh graders played three and sometimes four quarters in the seventh grade game before also contributing many minutes at the eighth grade level. With no seventh grade contest last night Cook said the fresh legs off the bench by his seventh graders helped in the win.

“We received a great deal of energy off the bench from our seventh graders, Hamilton Page and Gehrig Wynn,” said Cook. “I thought they both did a great job of coming in and bringing a little more intensity to both ends of the floor. Hamilton played positions that he isn’t used to playing and he knew exactly what to do and where to be. That shows how much he pays attention to detail in practice.”

Cook also lauded the effort in holding the West Frankfort team to only 20 points on the night.

“I was pleased with the defensive effort,” said Cook. “We communicated well on ball screens and had good rotations on the bottom of our defense.”

Noting the one-and-done format of post season where a loss now ends the season, Cook said he was pleased but at the same time downplayed the victory.

“Certainly this was a good win for us,” said Cook. “But it is also only one step toward where we ultimately want to be.

Also contributing to the win for Benton was Blane Pankey with eight points and three rebounds, Tyson Houghland with four points and four rebounds, Gehrig Wynn with three points and three rebounds, Scott Mosely with three points, and Hamilton Page with five rebounds. Also seeing action in the semi-final win was Oliver Davis, Parker Williams, Tony Tillman, Jordan Richey, Brett Bonenberger and Jordan Garbo.