Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – It wasn’t the type of game anyone anticipated from a pair of top-five ranked teams or the production predicted from two of the best players in Class 3A.

What Friday’s showdown between WAMAC Conference rivals Solon and Benton did have was the exact ending Callie Levin envisioned.

Levin’s runner in the lane with 3.3 second remaining lifted Class 3A fourth-ranked Solon (9-1) to a 36-35 win over 3A second-ranked Benton Community (9-2) in a back-and-forth thriller in Solon.

“I kind of knew all along that if I got the ball I was going to the hoop and I was going to shoot it,” Levin said. “I and I knew it was going to go in.”

While Levin anticipated her late game-winner that was one of the few things that went to plan for either team on Friday.

Levin and Benton Community standout Jenna Twedt each played sparingly in the first half duo to three early fouls and battle foul trouble all game.

Both standouts came to life after halftime but it was Levin who made amends for her early struggles with the biggest shot of the game in the final seconds.

“When I was sitting out I was trying to be a leader and telling my teammates to have confidence in themselves,” Levin said. “After having to sit that long to be able to hit that shot at the end of the game and get that W for my teammates it’s so huge.”

Levin and Twedt both spent a major of the first half on the bench after being whistled for their third fouls in the first quarter.

Twedt entered the game seventh in 3A in scoring at 20.7 points per game. Levin entered 10^th in 3A at 19.8 points per game.

The two combined for one first-half point on 0-of-4 shooting as Benton closed the first half on a 7-0 run to take a 16-15 halftime lead.

“I think people will go home and say we did expect a close game, we did expect kids to play hard but circumstances lead to certain things and both teams fought through all of that and did a really good job,” Solon coach Jamie Smith said. “When you sit back and look at it this was good basketball especially the last five minutes but we are glad to get a win.”

Even as the foul trouble mounted things heated up after halftime.

There were six lead changes in the third quarter alone and neither team led by more than four points in the second half.

After going scoreless on one shot attempt in the first half Levin scored 14 seconds into the second half on a post up in the paint.

The Iowa commit had all of her game-high 13 points in the second half including seven in the fourth quarter.

“We probably made more of an effort to get her the ball in the second half than I ever have,” Smith said. “We wanted her to at least get touches, there are a lot of things she can do when she gets the ball and I think she makes other players better too so I wasn’t going to try to outsmart myself tonight.”

Twedt had seven of her 10 points in the fourth quarter and put Benton Community up 28-27 with a 3-pointer with 3:57 left.

Levin answered with five consecutive points of her own to give Solon a 32-28 advantage with 3:10 left.

It was back and forth the rest of the way.

Benton Community took a 35-34 lead on a McKenna Kramer 3-pointer from the wing with 1:00 left and the Bobcats got the ball back after a Solon turnover on its ensuing possession.

The Bobcats turned it over for the 18^th time on its possession giving Solon one final chance.

Levin inbounded the ball out of a Solon timeout with 11 seconds left but got the ball back almost immediately and made a move to the basket slipping in a shot around a trio of Bobcat defenders.

“Winning this game is huge, we just beat the number two team and it’s crazy because we have a chance to get to state and be state champs and that hasn’t happened in a long time,” Levin said. “We just are going to stay disciplined, humble and get back to work.”

Kobi Lietz had seven points and Mia Stahle added five for Solon as the Spartans shot 36 percent from the floor.

Hailey Miller and Anna Quillin each had four points.

“We were passing the ball, sharing it and trusting each other,” Stahle said. “We know that we all can score and we can rely on anyone to do the job.”

Emma Townsley had nine points Kramer had seven points for Benton.

“I think that we have the mindset now that our goal is sometimes bigger than the game we are playing,” Smith said. “We are looking at the end result but we are also looking down the road and we want to be able to compete with the top teams and I think they are a legitimate top-five team.

Benton Community  7   9  9  10  –  35

Solon                              11  4  8  13  –  36

Benton Community (35) – Emma Townsley 3-8 2-2 9, Piper Nelson 0-4 3-5 3, McKenna Kramer 2-6 1-2 7, Aubrey Kelly 2-3 0-0 4, Jenna Twedt 4-7 1-2 10, Zoey Junge 1-2 0-0 2, Totals 12-30 7-11 35.

Solon (36) – Kobi Lietz 2-4 2-3 7, Hailey Miller 1-9 2-2 4, Delainey Durr 1-1 0-0 2, Mia Stahle 2-9 1-2 5, Anna Quillin 2-2 0-0 4, Callie Levin 4-7 5-5 13, Hilary Wilson 0-1 1-2 1, Totals 12-33 11-14 36.

3-point field goals – SOL 1-6 (Lietz 1-3, Miller 0-3), BC 4-11 (Townsley 1-3, Kramer 2-6, Twedt 1-1, Junge 0-1). Rebounds – SOL 20 (Wilson 4, Lietz 4, Miller 4), BC 24 (Nelson 9). Turnovers – SOL 14, BC 18. Total fouls – SOL 14, BC 16. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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