El Dorado’s stay among the top four teams in the league was cut short Tuesday.
The Lady Wildcats let one slip away, falling to Benton 42-40 at Wildcat Arena. The Lady Panthers improved to 12-7 overall and 5-1 in conference. El Dorado, which entered the game in a 4-way tie for first, slipped to 13-5, 4-2.
The fourth quarter featured eight lead changes and six ties.
Senior guard Tenisa Robinson scored on a driving lay-up to give Benton the lead with 17 seconds remaining. The Lady Wildcats’ Tasia Richardson drew a foul on a drive with 3.7 on the clock.
But, Richardson’s first free throw rimmed out.
She missed the second intentionally but the Lady Panthers claimed the rebound and the victory.
“For us to have the experience that we have, we had a lot of mental lapses on defense,” said El Dorado coach Destinee Rogers.
“We didn’t have our help-side. You have to give credit to Benton. They wanted it more. They got the hustle plays. They did the little things to win the ball game. We had way too many mental lapses, too many missed free throws.
“On a positive note, they didn’t give up. We fought the whole game. If you’re going to win those types of games, you can’t have those mental lapses toward the end of the ball game.”
Jessica Morton led El Dorado with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Breya Clark scored nine with six boards.
Richardson chipped in with seven. Diamond Hawthorne had six boards and two blocked shots.
Rhena Riley led Benton with 15.
The Lady Panthers led 36-35 after Kati Morrow’s three-point play with 3:07 left to play. Clark tied the game with a free throw but Kennedy Stringfellow hit a floater for Benton with 1:53 remaining.
Grace Murry’s bucket tied the game for El Dorado before Makenzie Davidson’s driving, spinning, lefty lay-up gave the Lady Panthers a 40-38 lead with 50 seconds left.
Richardson drove to the hoop and was fouled and hit two at the stripe to re-tie the game with 36 seconds remaining.
Coach Rogers saw her team rally from a 16-3 first quarter deficit.
Morton’s 3-pointer cut the margin to 18-16 at the half. Benton led 25-24 going into the fourth.
“Here is my thing, we lost, yeah, I can take some of the blame for it,” said Rogers. “But, I don’t care, I will go down swinging with this group any day.”