By E. Shawn Aylsworth
Managing Editor
INDIANAPOLIS – Class 4A top-ranked Ben Davis and 4A No. 10 Plainfield both extended their perfect records with opening-round victories Jan. 3 in the Ben Davis Holiday Classic. But that came crashing down for the latter Saturday evening as the host Giants roared to a 94-43 championship victory.
Plainfield had used a 26-11 run to close out the third quarter in the opener, a 69-51 win over previously undefeated 3A No. 3 Vincennes Lincoln. The Giants – the runaway favorite to win the 4A state title this season – scored the first 17 points of their 70-37 beatdown of 4A No. 11 Bloomington South.
Their wins set up a battle of brothers for the championship. The youngest Benge child, 14th-year Plainfield coach Curt, was looking for only his second victory ever against his 17-years-older brother, Ben Davis 24th-year mentor Stan.
He didn’t get it, and he didn’t have to wait long to realize he wasn’t going to, either. Which begs the question: Just how good is this Ben Davis team?
“I don’t know,” said Stan Benge. “I’ll tell you at the end of the year.”
Fair enough. Here’s a wrap on the day’s four games …
Championship: 4A No. 1 Ben Davis 94, 4A No. 10 Plainfield 43
The Giants raced out to a 31-10 lead after one quarter and coasted to victory in hitting 40 field goals compared with just 15 for the Quakers (11-1). Ben Davis (14-0), which got double-digit scoring from four players, nailed all 10 of its free throws to complete the finals rout.
Senior guard Alex Bentley, who led the way with a game-high 19 points, was joined in double figures by sophomore guard Bria Goss (15), junior guard Jordan Huber (13), and senior forward DeAirra Goss (12).
Consolation: 4A No. 11 Bloomington South 50, 3A No. 3 Vincennes Lincoln 39
Like in its opening loss to Plainfield, Vincennes Lincoln (11-2) fell behind by double digits early as Bloomington South (9-2) hit its first four shots in jetting out to a 9-0 lead that moved to 19-9 after one period.
The Alices, who would trail 32-18 just before the half, rallied on a four-point play to get within 44-39 midway through the fourth quarter, but they could not capitalize on a pair of turnovers in going scoreless the rest of the way.
Bloomington South had a pair of scorers in double figures: junior forward Jessica Parker with 16 points and sophomore guard Kaila Hulls with 11.
“We all knew we had to come out and play better defense,” sophomore guard Kelsee Ennis told the Bloomington Herald-Times. “Our strength is our defense.
“The girls, we all talked about how we needed to pick it up. Our defense helped a lot.”
Vincennes played without junior starting forward Stephanie Jefferson, who injured an ankle in the first half of the Plainfield game. Lincoln coach Jason Lane said that despite going 0-2, it was a successful day as the Alices got to face two of the state’s toughest teams.
“Part of the frustration we had was we just missed some good shots that we had,” Lane told the Vincennes Sun Commercial. “But we gave ourselves more of a chance to win (against South) than we did against Plainfield.”
Senior Nicole Young led the Alices with 16 points in the defeat.
Round 1: 4A No. 1 Ben Davis 70, 4A No. 11 Bloomington South 37
The day’s second game was never in doubt as the Giants forced 26 turnovers – including nine to set the tone in the first quarter – and rolled out to that 17-0 lead. Bloomington South finally responded with a 7-0 run, but Ben Davis countered with a 12-5 spurt on its way to a 35-15 halftime lead.
An 8-0 run by the Panthers to start the second half resulted in a Ben Davis timeout at 35-23. So what did coach Benge tell his players?
“We can’t have lapses, and we didn’t play with any energy,” said Stan Benge, who won back-to-back 4A state titles in 2000 and 2001.
The stoppage in play worked as DeAirra Goss immediately scored on a three-point play. The Giants then tallied eight straight points in 65 seconds on a putback, layin, and pair of free throws by Bria Goss before a fast-break layin by junior guard Dee Dee Williams.
That spurt jacked the lead back up to 21 with 3:24 left in the third period and effectively ensured that Ben Davis could rest its starters for the nightcap.
The Giants, who hit 53 percent from the field on 27-of-51 marksmanship, had a trio of players reach double figures in the Penn State-bound Bentley (22 points), Bria Goss (14), and Williams (12).
Bloomington South, which managed just 25-percent shooting in going 9 for 36, were led in scoring by Hulls (14 points) and Parker (12).
“There is no way to prepare for the speed and athleticism (of Ben Davis),” Bloomington South coach Larry Winters told the Bloomington Herald-Times.
Round 1: 4A No. 10 Plainfield 69, 3A No. 3 Vincennes Lincoln 51
Plainfield gained control early, held off a potentially game-tying scenario by Vincennes Lincoln to start the second half, then pulled away with that devastating third-quarter run in advancing to the final.
After falling behind by double digits to start the game and trailing by as many as 11 in the second stanza, Vincennes Lincoln had two chances to tie the game with a three-point play in the early stages of the second half.
“If they hit one of those two, it might change things,” said Curt Benge, whose Qs hit 11 trifectas on the game.
But a traveling call and missed 3-pointer let Plainfield off the hook at 30-27.
The Quakers then put their collective foot on the accelerator, going on a 16-7 run in less than four minutes and finishing the third period with a 26-11 flurry. At one point in the massive run, Plainfield hit eight of its 10 field goal attempts and went 7 of 9 from the free throw line.
“We’ve got some good shooters, and we shot pretty well,” Curt Benge said. “We told ‘em at the half that we had some deep foul trouble and had to change the way we played.”
Leading 56-38 heading into the fourth, the Quakers pushed the lead to as many as 21 behind the efforts of four double-digit scorers: sophomore forwards Julia Henson and Sarah Janssen (14 and 13 points, respectively) and junior guards Jamie Lydick and Samantha Smith (12 and 11).
The Alices, who missed 14 of their first 15 shots in digging a serious hole, had three scorers reach double figures in Young (13), senior Brooke Owens (12), and senior Tara Nidey 11.