Cardinals get revenge on Warriors on Saturday
By Jacob Meikel
It was a party in the locker room after Benton boys basketball secured its third straight victory with a 61-51 win over Smithville on Saturday in the Steve Vertin Classic.
“From day one when I took this job, I established to celebrate the wins and learn from the losses because, in this game, wins are hard to come by,” Benton head coach Jared Boone said.
The Cardinals righted the wrong from last season when they fell to the Warriors in this very classic in 2023 by a score of 65-55. Roughly a year removed from that loss, the Cardinals would come with an unmatched intensity on offense and defense after the first quarter when they were looking at a 10-8 deficit.
With the emergence of sophomore Lincoln Goodwin and junior Myles Bachali in the final three quarters, the Cardinals were able to build enough cushion on the scoreboard. Goodwin was able to pour in 20 points on three three pointers to lead the team. Bachali added 18 points in which eight of those came in the fourth quarter.
The experience of the Cardinals have paid dividends so far through 13 games. The rotation of Goodwin, Bachali, Carson Schmidt, Zach Smith, Talan McDowell and Mach Mayom are all players who saw action the season before. The points scored on average through 13 games by Benton boys compared to last season is almost identical, but more wins are accumulating.
“Those guys have been through the wars. We’ve been in a lot of battles and they’ve learned a lot from them and they’re starting to play like a veteran ballclub,” Boone said. “But the best thing about this group is their chemistry.”
Bachali echoed the same sentiment after the game, the junior senses the improvement in the team’s chemistry given that nearly the entire team returned this season.
“It’s just more clicking this year than we did last year. We just… the chemistry is really what it is,” Bachali said.
The Cardinals will take their current three-game win streak and take it into the Cardinal Classic, which is hosted by Benton High School for several boys high school basketball programs. The classic is expected to start on Tuesday.
