PHOTO GALLERY

Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – Looking at who was gone from last season and who returned on the Solon roster Jake Benzing could see his role would be changing in his second varsity season.

After leading the Spartans in scoring as a sophomore guard Benzing spent the offseason working on the same things he had in previous years, ball handling, jump shooting and other guard skills.

In preparation for his new role as a hybrid post player on a Solon squad that graduated its main post scorers from a year ago Benzing added a few new things to his offseason routine.

Chief among them was an increased dedication to the weight room.

“He played a lot in the spring and played in the summer and then he has worked on his game all fall and he hit the weight room and I think that’s been a big difference for him,” Solon coach Jared Galpin said. “Watching his game progress from last year to this year has been impressive.”

In his first game in his new role Benzing looked like a different player.

The junior poured in a career-high 29 points and grabbed 10 rebounds leading Solon to a 75-61 season-opening win over West Branch (0-3) on Saturday in a non-conference game in West Branch.

“I worked a lot on scoring inside more and my mid-range game,” Benzing said. “We graduated a lot of size so I have to play inside more this year so it’s a little different but I like playing down low and I think my game translates pretty well to playing down there.”

Benzing scored from everywhere against the Bears.

The 6-foot-3 guard caught the ball with his back to the basket on the block, he got into the lane of the dribble and hit jump shots from the perimeter.

“He has probably has the best footwork and hands for us in the post right now but he’s also our best perimeter shooter,” Galpin said. “We have to get to where we play him inside and out because he’s so versatile like that. We can score at all three levels.”

That variety of scoring skills has a bigger, stronger Benzing poised for a big season.

“The weight room has definitely helped and certainly I have more room to improve there, getting even stronger but that has definitely helped me a lot,” Benzing said. “I think that’s helped with playing in the paint.”

Benzing made 12-of-18 field goal attempts on Saturday as Solon shot 44 percent from the field in its season opener.

Eight different players scored for Solon and five different Spartans had a 3-pointer in the win.

Gehrig Turner had 16 points and Rylen Stiegelmeyer added nine for Solon which was 9-of-18 from 3-point range.

“We have a lot of guys that can score,” Galpin said. “Gehrig shot the ball well, Rylen hit some shots so it was a great team win.”

West Branch, which lost road games at River Valley Conference North Division opponents Dyersville Beckman and Monticello on Tuesday and Friday led 18-16 after Andy Henson beat the first-quarter buzzer with a layup.

After going 8-of-13 from the field in the first quarter the Bears made just 3-of-11 field goal attempts in a six-point second quarter as Solon closed the half on a 10-0 run to take a 32-24 lead.

“The first two games we didn’t come out ready to go and got ourselves into a deep hole and we finally started with some energy tonight and then you could tell our legs were going out on us in our third game in four days,” West Branch coach Jason Kern said. “It’s probably the toughest three-game stretch anyone has had in the state to start the season and I am proud of our guys effort we just have to put a full 32 minutes together.”

Solon used its half-court 1-3-1 trapping defense to force West Branch into 20 turnovers and got several layups off steals during a 12-2 run to start the second half that pushed the lead to 44-26.

“We were just more aggressive on defense,” Benzing said. “We got some key steals and that helped build the momentum and kept going from there.”

West Branch got as closed as eight points in the final minute after a 13-2 fourth-quarter run.

Holden Arnaman had 15 of his team-high 17 points in the second half for West Branch while Reese Trepanier had 16 points and 13 rebounds.

Jack McCullough had 13 points for the Bears.

“We do see some good things out of these guys,” Kern said. I think as the season goes on we will get clicking and we have a big one next week here so hopefully we can bounce back.”

Solon                          16  16 23  20  –  75

West Branch             18   6  18  19  –  61

Solon (75) – Sean Stahle 3-10 2-5 8, Austin Knight 1-4 2-4 5, Rylen Stiegelmeyer 3-7 0-0 9, Cole Buffington 0-1 0-0 0, Vince Steinbrech 0-3 1-2 1, Jake Benzing 12-18 4-4 29, Oaken Foster 2-5 0-0 6, Gehrig Turner 5-8 4-5 16, Will Cusick 0-3 1-2 1, Totals 26-59 14-22 75.

West Branch (61) – Carver Boelk 2-7 0-0 4, Holden Arnaman 7-14 2-3 17, Cameron Gingerich 0-1 0-0 0, Jack McCullough 3-9 5-5 13, Andy Henson 4-6 1-4 9, Reese Trepanier 8-10 0-3 16, Cole Crosthewaite 1-1 0-0 2, Totals 25-48 8-15 61.

3-point field goals – SOL 9-18 (Stahle 0-3, Knight 1-2, Stiegelmeyer 3-5, Steinbrech 0-1, Benzing 1-2, Foster 2-3, Turner 2-2), WB 3-19 (Boelk 0-5, Arnaman 1-6, Gingerich 0-1, McCullough 2-7). Rebounds – SOL 34 (Benzing 10), WB 34 (Trepanier 13). Turnovers – SOL 13, WB 20. Total fouls – SOL 16, WB 20. Fouled out – SOL (Foster), WB (Henson). Technicals fouls – None.

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