Sports
Richardson’s Solo Effort Runs Into Bentley Double Trouble
By: Noah Wolf
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Rachel Richardson tried to do it all for the Alexander Lady Spartans Thursday night. The one thing she couldn’t do was win the game.
Despite 24 points from Richardson, Alexander lost to the Vinton County Lady Vikings at the Alley, 39-32.
One name, Bentley, was also the difference for the Lady Vikings.
It just so happens that two players share that name: sisters Morgan and Cassie Bentley.
Those two combined for 29 points and 12 rebounds. Cassie finished with 17 points, seven rebounds; Morgan had 12 points, five rebounds.
Richardson’s biggest issue was that she couldn’t get any help from the rest of her offense. According to Vinton County head coach Rod Bentley, that was exactly the plan.
“We understand that Rachel [Richardson] is going to score a lot of their points,” said Bentley. “We basically let her have hers, contest hers, but we’re going to try to take everybody else away.”
That plan worked perfectly. No other Lady Spartan had more than five points. Richardson excluded, Alexander shot 3-22 from the field.
Despite that, the Lady Spartans kept things nail-bitingly close. Although Vinton County never trailed throughout the entire game, Alexander cut the Lady Vikings lead to just two points with 3:30 left in the contest. To that point, Vinton County had not scored a point in the fourth quarter.
Coach Bentley called a timeout to get his team in the right mindset.
“I said ‘just relax, we’re stronger, bigger, faster than them, let’s get better and let’s win this fourth quarter.’”
After that, his Lady Vikings closed off the game. They scored seven points after that timeout to drop the Lady Spartans.
Alexander travels to Bidwell to take on the River Valley Lady Raiders next Monday. Vinton County takes their undefeated record back home to McArthur next Monday to take on the Athens Lady Bulldogs.