By MATT PIKE
It felt like a playoff environment in the middle of the regular season, as the Southside and the Northside took over Benton High School, for what could potentially be the final ever matchup between Benton and Lafayette.
As the St. Joseph School District shifts to a two high school model next school year, Benton and Central will remain the lone high schools, while Lafayette will become a middle school, meaning this classic rivalry of Southside and Northside pride, will be no more come this fall. Even with still a chance these two teams could meet in the actual playoffs, the fans treated this like it was their playoffs with the atmosphere that was created.
The atmosphere surrounding the rivalry is nothing new. In fact, Benton girls head coach Rebecca Bailey whose been a part of this for some time, formerly as an assistant coach but also a parent, says there’s nothing like the atmosphere this game creates.
“I wish I had an atmosphere like this when I was playing in high school, this is I feel like super awesome for these kids, Northside and Southside, fans from the north, fans from the south, best fans in the world and fans in St. Joe,” Bailey tells reporters. “And so I love the fact that both sides came out and supported these girls tonight and having it loud and having everyone there and cheering you on, I’m super excited for the girls they got to play in that, it’s a very awesome atmosphere.”
“And if you’ve never played it in or never experienced it, it’s something you can’t really put into words unless you’re there and you get to experience it yourself and it’s just super awesome, I think the community did a great job of coming in and supporting these girls.”
Unlike in their matchup back on January 16th in the Kearney Tournament championship, Benton got off to a slow start, and it was Lafayette that took over the first quarter, getting out to an early 16-5 lead on the Cardinals. But in the second quarter, Benton found their footing and made adjustments, finding holes in the defense as senior Eliana Arambula scored 12 of her team leading 25 points in the quarter, to narrow the gap to one point, leaving Benton trailing 26-25 at halftime.
The Cardinals continued to take over the game in the third quarter, outscoring the Lady Irish 12-4 to move their lead to 37-30, before Arambula again took over in the final quarter scoring the remaining 13 points, with Benton also getting buckets from Jenna Cox and Jalynn Brown, on way to a 54-42 victory.
Arambula says the rally in the final three quarters, after the slow start was just taking advantage of the opportunities that Lafayette was giving to them.
“There’s holes in every defense and we were able to figure those out, so if it takes a quarter, I mean obviously we don’t like it to take a quarter, but if it does focusing on figuring it out in the next three quarters is the biggest thing,” Arambula says.
Arambula led with 25 points while Brown scored 11. For Lafayette, Emery Omon led with 16 points and Katana Bigham added nine, while Rozlyn McDevitt chipped in eight.
To no surprise, the atmosphere carried right into the boys game, feeling very similar to last year’s Class 4 District 16 championship game when these two teams met on the same court. It’s a rivalry and an atmosphere though, that goes even farther back for Benton head coach Jared Boone.
“The rivalry’s been a big part of my life, I’ve played in it, grew up in it, still followed it after my career, and now coaching in it, it’s been fun,” Boone says. “A lot of stories, a lot of friendships, a lot of memories, just hanging out with some of the guys back in the day during my time, Charlie McDonald, Antoine Wilkinson, Ronnie Grant, and those guys before games and then coming down here and competing with them and then going and hanging out with them again after games, and those are still guys that I still see to this day.”
“And Darrell Hughes, his son is a freshman here that’s on our freshman team, and so it’s just kind of cool to have those full circle moments and now seeing the kids go through the rivalry now and what has become the past few years, it’s just fun to be a part of and fun to see, and we look forward to it.”‘
In many ways like the girls, the Benton boys got off to a slow start against Lafayette, in a very fast moving first quarter, the Cardinals holding a narrow 14-11 lead at the end of one. In the second quarter though, again like the girls, Benton made their adjustments, and went on a 12-0 run before the Irish could score, pulling away at the halftime break 26-17.
Boone says what went into putting that run together after the slow start, was a better understanding of what Lafayette was doing to them.
“What they were trying to take advantage of with flipping our defense and things like that, and then just us kind of understanding we’re not doing things to the principles we talk about and just kind of getting back to basics and focusing on that,” Boone explains.
The second half, fueled by that run and stealing momentum, remained all Cardinals, as Benton in a low scoring third quarter outscored Lafayette 13-7, to extend their lead, and only continued adding to it in the fourth and final frame, eventually prevailing over the Irish 57-34.
Senior Lincoln Goodwin has been a part of this rivalry for all four years of his high school career, experiencing both highs and lows, and says it’s sad to know this could potentially be the end of the matchup.
“Even if they’re our rival, we care about everybody, but I mean it was great the city really showed out tonight and it was awesome, it was a great environment,” Goodwin says.
Goodwin led with 29 points while Mach Mayom and Jason Simmons each added seven points. For Lafayette, Jodell Redman led with 14 points and Donavyn Fonseca added 12 points. Maxton Pucket chipped in six points.
The Benton boys and girls will travel to Maryville on Friday. The Lafayette boys and girls will be at Bishop LeBlond on Thursday.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.
