Youngsville avenges lone loss of season against Kane
SHEFFIELD — For one night, Youngsville did its best impression of The Avengers.
The Eagles avenged their lone loss of the season, holding off Kane in a 46-41 decision Friday in the opening round of the Sheffield Sports Boosters Christmas Tournament at Sheffield Area High School.
Rylan Benton poured in 26 points and the Eagles overcame the physical nature of Friday’s game as well as mounting fatigue to down the Wolves. Kane had erased a double-digit deficit for a 43-42 win December 20 in Kane.
“We had a sick crew heading into Kane last Friday and we battled and led most of the game before losing by one unfortunately,” said Youngsville coach Jesse Benton, whose Eagles improved to 5-1 on the year. “Tonight, we were mostly back as a healthy unit and the boys came ready to play their game. I’m very proud of the work they are putting in and how they didn’t allow any pressure to get to them.”
Much like the game a week ago, Youngsville started to inch away from the opening tip. Rylan Benton canned three 3-pointers in the opening quarter and David Manning scored eight of his 13 points in the second quarter as the Eagles lead grew to 23-15 at halftime.
Youngsville came out of the intermission strong and used a 9-2 run to grab its biggest lead of the night at 32-17 with 5:27 left in the third quarter.
That double-digit edge held until late in the third quarter when — for a moment — it appeared history may be repeating itself.
The Wolves scored the final four points of the third quarter and the first six points of the final quarter to make it 39-37 with 5:46 to play. Manning and Benton responded with back-to-back buckets to push the lead back to six before Kane’s Nate McCormick hit a basket to make it 43-39.
Moments later, Benton hit his sixth and final ‘3’ of the night to push the advantage to 46-39 but the Wolves’ Preston Darr answered with a bucket to make it 46-41 with just 2:23 left.
The score remained the same until the final 50 seconds of the contest when Kane’s physical play came back to haunt it.
Youngsville kept the ball away from Kane and took 40 seconds off the clock while Kane continually fouled to put the Eagles in the bonus.
Ethan Beers missed a pair of free throws with 10 seconds left but teammate Cash Moore ripped down the offensive rebound and cleared the ball from the paint as the Eagles ran out the clock on their fifth win of the season.
The Eagles will next compete in the tournament championship game today at 7:30 p.m. against the winner of the second semifinal of Sheffield vs. Smethport. Kane will face the loser of that game in the 6 p.m. consolation game.
YOUNGSVILLE (46)
Benton 9 2-3 26, Beers 0 1-4 1, Manning 5 0-0 13, Baker 2 0-0 5, Moore 0 1-2 1, Rowland 0 0-0 0, Totals 16 4-9 46.
KANE (41)
McCormick 4 0-0 8, NChamberlain 2 0-0 4, KChamberlain 2 2-2 6, Darr 4 0-0 11, Novosel 2 0-2 4, Boschart 2 0-0 4, Yates 1 0-0 2, Wensel 1 0-0 2, Totals 18 2-4 41
3-point goals–Benton 6, Manning 3, Baker, Darr 3.
Youngsville 9 14 16 7 — 46
Kane 7 8 16 10 — 41