Minneapolis split with Ottawa County Rival Bennington Friday Night

Minneapolis would play their first road game of the season Friday night and didn’t have to travel far to get there. The Lions would travel to county rival Bennington and would split on the evening with the girls winning 47-41 and the boys dropping a heartbreaker 59-54.

GIRLS – Minneapolis 47, Bennington 41
The lady Lions would off to a slow start for the third game in a row and would have to mount a comeback to win the game in the second half. Bennington would lead 15-6 after the first quarter and looked to be in trouble on the road. They would use a solid defensive performance in the 2nd quarter only allowing the lady Bulldogs to score 4 points and Minneapolis trailed 19-12 going into halftime.
Minneapolis would use a big 3rd quarters behind two 3’s from Sophomore Raelyn Robinson and one from Sophomore Josi Schrader to score 21 points in the quarter. They would hold Bennington to just 7 points in the 3rd to take 33-26 lead going into the final stanza.
The lady Bulldogs would score 15 points in the 4th in a comeback effort but would ultimately give up 14 points to Minneapolis and the lady Lions would win the game 47-41.
Junior Tambryn Watson would lead the scoring for Bennington with 12 points which was actually good enough to lead all scorers. Other scorers for Bennington  were Rori Miles (8), Kolbie Bartlett (6), Payton Debold (6), Talyn Jilka (4), Tayleigh Watson (3) and Ava Lawson (2).
Minneapolis was lead in scoring by Raelyn Robinson with 10 points. Also scoring for the Lady Lions were Maci McClure (8), Braedee Weatherman (7), Josi Schrader (7), Maggie Shupe (6), Myka Deronnet (4), Jordan Peck (3) and Alayna Cossart (2).
Nex-Tech Wireless Player of the Game goes to Raelyn Robinson for scoring 10 points off the bench for Minneapolis.
H&R Block of the Game goes to Junior Myka Deronnet.
Minneapolis moves to 3-0 on the season and 2-0 in the Tri-County Classic and will play Solomon tomorrow at 4pm at Mabee Arena at Kansas Wesleyan University for a Championship in the tournament. Bennington drops to 2-1 on the season and will play Ell-Saline tomorrow at 1pm for 2nd in the Tri-County Classic.
Minneapolis – 6 – 6 – 21 – 14 / 47
Bennington – 15 – 4 – 7 – 15 / 41
BOYS – Bennington 59, Minneapolis 54
For the second time this week Minneapolis would lose a close game after trailing big in the first half. They would trail as many as 14 points in the first half only to come up short on the comeback 59-54.
The Lions would get off to a slow start in the 1st quarter and only score 8 points whole giving up 20 to the Bulldogs and would trail by 12 after the 1st quarter. The 2nd quarter was much of the same as Minneapolis would struggle to find their shot and would go into halftime down 34-20.
A big 3rd quarter by Minneapolis would help mount a comeback as the Lions would score 22 in the quarter including 9 points from Senior Mason Scott. Minneapolis would close the gap to 48-42 going into the 4th quarter.
After a couple big 3’s by Scott in the 4th quarter the Lions would tie the game up at 50 but Bennington would edge them out at home in the rivalry with a final score of 59-51.
The Lions were lead in scoring by Mason Scott who finished with 30 to lead all scorers. Other Lions with points on the night include Mason Smith (7), Tucker Smith (6), Owen Just (5), Grant Rice(4) and Dalton Krueger (2).
The Bulldogs were lead in scoring by Junior Mister Smith with 27 points which 20 of those came in the first half. Other scorers included Eli Lawson (19), Talan Pickering (9), Sean Garrett (2) and Kian Wilson (2).
Nex-Tech Wireless Player of the Game was Mason Scott for his efforts and putting up 30 points for the Lions.
H&R Block of the Game goes to Junior Ryan Parks.
Minneapolis drops to 0-3 on the season and will play Solomon at 5:30pm Saturday at Kansas Wesleyan hoping to get their first win of the season. Bennington moves to 3-0 on the season and will play Ell-Saline Saturday at 2:30pm for the Tri-County Championship.
Minneapolis – 8 – 12 – 22 – 12 / 54
 
Bennington – 20 – 14 – 14 – 11 / 59