Benton can't solve Harlan's tricky defenses

By Jeff Johnson

The Gazette

DES MOINES - Benton Community found the diamond rough Wednesday afternoon and disappeared inside the Harlan Triangle.

The Bobcats faced more junk (defenses, that is) than Fred Sanford on a busy day and simply couldn't handle them in a 49-40 loss in the Class 3A state tournament quarterfinals at Wells Fargo Arena.

"This team, we have to make things ugly to win, and that's what we did," said Harlan Coach Mitch Osborn. "I know it wasn't pretty."

Especially for Benton (19-6). Leading scorer Levi Montague, averaging 18 a game, was shadowed the entire game by Harlan's Jeffrey White in the diamond-and-one and was held to two shots and two points.

When Harlan (23-2) decided to go with the triangle-and-two, sophomore Zach Twedt (Benton's second-leading scorer) was manned up. Twedt still managed to get a team-high 15 points, but it was the absolute inability to find a way to get the 6-foot-4 Montague the basketball that ultimately killed the Bobcats.

Well, that and icy 33.3-percent shooting from the guys who did take the shots.

"Pretty difficult," Twedt said. "We had not seen the triangle-and-two this season. We kind of had an idea they would do something like that."

"We played a little side to side instead of attacking," said Benton Coach Larry Carlson. "They did a nice job of switching things up on us. We just didn't quite get the shots to fall for us."

Benton scored the final nine points of the second quarter to knock a 10-point deficit to one, 17-16, at halftime. The Bobcats had a couple of two-point leads early in the third, but Harlan surged back ahead by quarter's end and never trailed again.

Center Jacob Schaben led the Cyclones with 13 points, with guards Jeff Hastert and Willie Baughman adding 10 each. But it was White who was actually the star.

"About the fourth quarter, I could tell (Montague) was frustrated," White said. "He was pushing a little more than he was earlier in the game. That's a good sign."

Twedt was the only Benton player in double figures scoring, though point guard Andrew Berger had a nice game with nine points, four over his average.

"We hung in there," Carlson said. "Our kids have a lot of heart, and they played hard all year long."