PORTLAND – Benson’s girls basketball team is hoping its days as a league co-champion are over.
The veteran Techsters, who shared the Portland Interscholastic League title with Grant the last two seasons, took an important step toward what they hope is an outright title Saturday night by handling the host Generals 87-55 at the Marshall Campus.
Senior guard Ciera Ellington poured in 33 points and senior guard Tayler Lyday added 23 points as No. 2 Benson (7-4) bolted to an early lead and never looked back against No. 9 Grant (4-6), which handed the Techsters 20-point defeats in each of the last two seasons.
“We know Grant at home is tough, and they’ve given us some problems,” Benson coach Eric Knox said. “It’s bigger than basketball when we play Grant because there’s this community thing at play. The gym is packed and these kids grew up with each other.”
Ellington said the Techsters “definitely don’t want” to split the league title this season.
“We want to move on to bigger things, and we need to finish this,” Ellington said. “We need to focus on league right now because we’re still trying to get to playoffs, and of course win the championship.”
Benson hit Grant with a 27-point first quarter and shot 64.3 percent in the first half, at one point opening a 16-point lead. The Techsters shot 50.8 percent for the game and forced 20 turnovers, committing only 10.
“It’s the best I’ve seen our kids play,” Knox said. “Our kids are still playing themselves into shape. We had little nick-nack injuries and I didn’t get to push them in the preseason like I wanted to. When we got back from Phoenix, we felt healthy, and we’ve been grinding, and I feel like we’re finally getting in Benson shape.”
Benson never stopped attacking, keeping the pressure on Grant’s defense the entire game.
“I’ve always known we had it in us,” Ellington said. “I knew we could play at this level, it was just up to us to go out there and actually do it.”
It was a sparkling performance by the Loyola Marymount-bound Ellington. She directed the offense from the perimeter and used her 6-foot frame to repeatedly score in the post.
“When I very first started playing basketball, I was a post, and he converted me into a point guard and wing,” Ellington said, referring to Knox. “So I still have post moves, and if I need to, I can. I like playing the post.”
Knox said he doesn’t “know of anybody having a better year in the state of Oregon” than Ellington. All the hard work Ellington has put in with Knox, she said, is paying off big-time.
“We used to do 4:30 in the morning before school, running beaches, stairs, hills, and then going into the gym and shooting 1,000 shots,” Ellington said. “I used to struggle with anxiety and confidence issues, so I just started telling myself that nobody’s going to believe you until you show them. Nobody’s going to believe you’re a great player until you go out there and put on a show.”
She did just that Saturday, racking up 22 points in the first half. Lyday did much of the damage in the second half, when she recorded 15 of her 23 points. Senior guard Makenzy Porter made four three-pointers and finished with 16 points.
Benson also got a big contribution from its first player off the bench, junior guard Bria Dixson. The transfer from Franklin hit three three-pointers in the first quarter and finished with four triples and 14 points. She also added an exclamation point with a behind-the-back pass to Lyday for a layup.
“She was just that piece that we needed,” Ellington said. “We needed one more piece, and she’s it. I’ve known Bria for a long time, and I’ve always known she had game. She’s a super smart player, high IQ, can shoot the ball. And she’s a leader.”
Grant battled behind 6-2 sophomore post Schuyler Berry, who scored a team-high 20 points, and was still within 51-41 midway through the third quarter.
But senior forward Monka Hickok and senior guard Marin Leonard picked up their fourth fouls in a two-minute span late in the third quarter, and without them, the Generals faded.
The Generals, who also have lost to No. 3 Tigard and No. 4 Beaverton, are still trying to find consistency.
“We were trying to take it one-on-five to the hoop, rather than passing and actually running our plays,” Leonard said. “We have all the tools to beat those teams, I just think we’re not executing, getting in our own heads.”
Grant, which got 12 points from Hickok, eight from sophomore Avari Delancy and seven from Leonard, will play at Benson on Feb. 6.
“They have improved as a team. I can see that,” Leonard said of the Techsters. “But I don’t think it should’ve been a 30-point game. It should’ve been a way closer game.”
The Generals will have a chance to redeem themselves in the next meeting. But it also could present an opportunity for Benson to put the clamps on an outright title.
“I told our kids, our 2019 class, I said, ‘Be greedy, win it outright, don’t give it up if you don’t have to,’” Knox said. “I think they understand. Our maturity is on another level.
“This is by far my funnest year of coaching because I feel like I have coaches on the floor. Now I’ve got all these kids that understand what we’re about, understand the moment. They’re different kids now, and this is fun.”
