Lady Bucks fall in wild battle with Benton at home, 40-39

PublisherJanuary 18, 2023Last Updated: January 18, 2023

2 minutes read

By Bees O’Brien

FARWELL, PA- Bucktail coach Carl Gentzyel knew he needed to find somebody to step up in the Lady Bucks Mid Penn Conference battle on Wednesday with a much improved Benton team. Gentzyel was still without leading scorer Mak Wagner and Alexis Lowery did just that. But the Lady Tigers went home the winner, 40-39.

Lowery became a one woman wrecking crew. She single handedly kept the Lady Bucks in the fight in the first half. Bucktail fell behind 12-4 after one quarter with Lowery scoring all four Bucktail points.

She would net four more points in the second quarter and Kendall Wagner added 5 points, as Bucktail outscored the Lady Tigers 11-7 in the quarter to shrink the visitors lead to just 19-15.

Bucktail dominated the boards led by Lowery’s 7 first half rebounds and Wagner’s 3 rebounds. Benton’s All Conference center Gracie Baker was held in check all night and was limited to just 4 rebounds and finished with just 5 points.

It wasn’t Baker that did the damage, it was reserve guard Callie Nickles who netted 14 points, including to big three-point baskets to lead Benton before she would be Benton’s second player to foul out in the fourth quarter.

Bucktail ran into their share of foul troubles as well. Dezlyn Halpate, Lily Francis and Matti Mason would all foul out in the second half, which left an already shorthanded Bucktail at a disadvantage.

Eva Sockman would fill in well and her free throw at the 7 minute mark in the fourth quarter would tie things up at 28. Francis would give Bucktail the 30-28 lead just before she fouled out on a layup.

Sockman would be money again with 1:27 remaining when she connected on a free throw to give the Lady Bucks the 37-36 lead.

With both teams in the bonus Benton would win the foul battle and Malaia Hart’s free throw with 30 seconds remaining would seal the deal and send the Benton Lady Tigers to victory lane and break the hearts of the Lady Bucks.

Lowery finished with a monster game. She would finish with 14 points and 17 rebounds for the double-double. Teammate Kendall Wagner nearly collected a double-double as well with 9 points and 9 rebounds.

Benton improved to 5-8 on the season and will more than likely leapfrog the Lady Bucks in the current standings. Bucktail dropped to 5-7 on the year.

The Lady Bucks will get a chance to iron things out on Saturday when they travel to 0-14 Columbia Montour Vo-Tech. The Lady Rams have only scored in double figures twice this season and were beaten by Sullivan County 51-0 back in December.