Benton Community boys basketball team rallies for first postseason win since 2018

TIFFIN - When you are trying to resurrect a program, in this case a boys basketball program, there are certain marks you need to hit in order to show true progress is being made.

There’s the first win for the new coach. There’s the first conference win.

Having a winning regular season is a big one. Then there was Monday night.

Benton Community rallied from 12 points back in the third quarter, made some clutch shots and free throws and got some clutch defensive stops in the final two minutes of the fourth to knock off Clear Creek Amana, 62-59, in a Class 3A substate quarterfinal.

It’s the first postseason victory for the Bobcats since 2018. What’s now a 13-9 overall record has clinched Benton’s first winning boys basketball season since 2018-19.

Scott Kiburis won a state championship at Gladbrook-Reinbeck before moving to Benton Community last school year. His second edition of Bobcats has been a good one, one that is helping turn this program around.

“I really got no words,” said Benton senior forward Eli Patterson. “Just a great win. We played hard, fought, especially after not starting off too hot. We really fought. Actually happy with our team. Our team played and just kept battling, didn't give up.”

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“It's been a long time,” said Benton junior guard Jack Lange. “Man, we've haven't been good for a very long time.”

Benton Comnmunity will be a massive underdog in its 3A substate semifinal Thursday night at second-ranked Adel-DeSoto-Minburn. But you never you.

Strange things happen in the postseason sometimes.

“We won some games this year, and the kids are a little bit more positive,” Kiburis said. “And I actually catch someone every once in awhile liking basketball. You know, sometimes they play so many sports, it's like for sure they start watching them like basketball. I think one of our kids, Brody Timmerman, was a starter, and he didn't play a lot at the end of the game tonight, but he was the number one supporter on that bench, and he got us going.”

These teams split two regular-season games against each other, each team winning on its home court. It sure looked like Clear Creek Amana (15-8) would win the rubber match between these Wamac Conference West Division rivals, taking an immediate lead and growing it to as many as 13 points in the first half and 12 in the third quarter.

That’s when Benton Community’s completely stymied offense suddenly and surprisingly got going.

Lange had a driving bucket, Patterson hit a 3, Brooks Mitchell-Birdsell had a steal and layup Patterson scored again after a CCA turnover and Mitchell-Birdsell nailed a 3. That’s a 12-0 run and a tied game, with Benton taking a 44-43 lead to the fourth quarter.

The 6-foot-4 Patterson couldn’t find much room on the interior because of CCA’s defense, specifically center Alex DuBay, so he floated out to the arc and nailed three straight treys early in the fourth.

He finished with a game-high 23 points. Lange added 14.

“I missed the first two (3s), and I didn't think I was going to shoot another one, but they left me open, and I made them,” Patterson said. “They were really good defensively. Down low, they stopped me. And so if I shoot that, it opens up the whole court. Helps me get to where I need to be. So, I mean, I’ve just got to keep shooting, I guess.“

“I just think we got to making big shots,” Lange said. “We played hard hard on defense, got turnovers, turned them into offense.”

Benton held a four-point lead with 30.3 seconds left, but Brandon Miskimen popped home a trey with 18 seconds left to bring CCA within 60-59. Benton then made one of two free throws, with CCA rebounding the miss, coming down court but losing the basketball out of bounds with 6.8 seconds left.

Again, Benton made one of two free throws for a three-point lead, with CCA rebounding the missed second one coming down and getting off a deep 3-point attempt at the buzzer that went around and out.

Myles Howell made four 3-points and led CCA with 18 points. Guard Beckett Boeset added 12 points.

“For a lot of our kids, they've never played major minutes in the postseason,” said Clear Creek Amana Coach Brandon Clubb. “That's baptism by fire. Some kids from Benton had been there, and they rose when the challenge got high. They rose up. And our kids, and that’s kind of what we talked about, it was like ‘Hey, this is our first taste, but you’ve got to learn from this and grow.’”

CCA had two seniors on its roster, one who played regularly. The rest of the regular players were regular players on the varsity this season for the first time.

“I thought we guarded them well,” Clubb said. “They just hit some tough shots. And our kids kind of had the dear-in-the-headlights look when they came back on us. I mean they’re just puppies.”

AT TIFFIN

BENTON COMMUNITY (62): Brooks Mitchell-Birdsell 3-4 2-2 10, Eli Patterson 9-18 1-2 23, Carson Pickering 2-7 0-0 5, Jack Lange 5-10 1-2 14, Brody Timmerman 0-3 0-0 0, Kaleb Hayden 2-4 5-6 10, Cole Junge 0-0 0-0 0, Will Rausch 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-46 8-12 62.

CLEAR CREEK-AMANA (59): Myles Howell 7-14 1-2 18, Alex DuBay 4-6 2-2 10, Carson Meskimen 4-11 0-0 11, Kayden Howell 2-5 3-5 8, Beckett Boeset 4-12 3-3 12, Avery Sorensen 0-0 0-0 0, Noah Evans 0-0 0-0 0, Texton Bollers 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-49 9-12 59.

Halftime - Clear Creek-Amana 28, Benton Community 21. 3-point goals - Benton Community 11-24 (Mitchell-Birdsell 2-3, Patterson 4-7, Pickering 1-6, Lange 3-4, Timmerman 0-2, Hayden 1-2), Clear Creek-Amana 8-18 (Howell 3-6, Meskimen 3-7, Howe 1-3, Boeset 1-2). Rebounds - Benton Community 25 (Patterson 7), Clear Creek-Amana 36 (DuBay 10). Total fouls - Benton Community 10, Clear Creek-Amana 19. Fouled out - DuBay, Boeset. Turnovers - Benton Community 18, Clear Creek-Amana 19.

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