Bucktail’s offense sputters in 53-36 loss to Benton

By Bees O’Brien

BENTON- Bucktail head coach Travis Fantaskey is looking for offense. Saturday night at Benton the mission continued. Bucktail, who was without one of their top scorers would drop a big District IV 1A meeting with Benton in a game that the Bucks managed just 36 points.

The Bucks were holding down the fourth and final quarterfinal homecourt spot before the loss to the Tigers and now Bucktail will need a pair of big wins this week to keep their hopes of hosting a district playoff game alive.

Benton took advantage of poor Bucktail execution and led 11-7 after one quarter. Benton’s lead would swell to 26-14 at the break after another low scoring effort from the Bucks.

Benton’s 24-22 second half advantage would be more than enough to fend off the Bucks on this night.

Brody Pentz led the Bucks with 14 points. Johnny Green added 9 points, while Brett Mason chipped in 7 points. Gary Whipp, Will Steele and Gavin Pick each added 2 points.

Graydon Beishline led the Tigers with 27 points.

Benton improved to 5-7 on the season and are very much in the homecourt playoff game hunt.

Bucktail dropped below .500 with a 7-8 overall record. Key games with Millville (2-11) on Wednesday and a rematch with Benton on Thursday have become very critical. Both games will be in Farwell.