Zion-Benton's size does in Bartlett

After shooting 44 percent from the field in the first half, Bartlett's 31-28 lead at halftime on Zion-Benton had the Hawks in good shape in their third place showdown at the Jacobs Holiday Classic Saturday night.

But Zion-Benton's interior game proved too much for the Hawks, whose shots more so hit iron in the second half, and three Zee-Bees' post players scored at least 17 or better as they wrapped up third place with a 75-59 win over Bartlett.

Zion-Benton dominated most of the second half, but the explosion didn't appear until the final five minutes. Up 55-51, Zion-Benton went on scorching 20-8 run, led by Lenzelle Smith, whose dunk uncontested with 4:40 left signaled the end for Bartlett. Smith scored 10 of his game high 22 in the fourth, and Owen Worthington scored 4 of his 16 during that stretch, taking it strong to the hoop to push their lead to 8 with 3:20 remaining. Cordaryus Craigen also added 6 of his 17 in the last 4 minutes, as the big three went hard to the basket.

"Second half, we made an emphasis of going inside into the post or penetrate more to the basket," Zion-Benton coach Don Kloth said. "I think our size hurt them, I think we rebounded really well in the second half."

"Don's always coached like that, he's always gone inside," Hawks coach Jim Wolfsmith said. "They did exactly what I expected them to do."

Zion-Benton out-rebounded Bartlett 37-11, while the Hawks' (8-5) cold shooting (24-for-57) and size disadvantage couldn't get many offensive rebounds.

"We settled for the shot they wanted us to take, and we didn't hit them," Wolfsmith said. "If you settle for outside jump shots and you don't hit them, they're a big team, they're an athletic team, they're going to get most of those rebounds.

"I thought in the second and third quarter particularly, we settled for those shots. In the first quarter we came out against their zone and knocked those shots down. Then they went to a man-to-man and looked for those same shots. The shots against the man are different against the zone, and the goal against the man was different than the goal against the zone. Our kids took a couple of quarters to figure where they needed to go offensively."

Luke Labedzki's two 3-pointers in the first quarter and Larry Whitaker's 10-point first half gave Bartlett the lead for much of the half. Whitaker's layup made it 22-16 Hawks midway through the second quarter, but back-to-back 3s by Dondre Osborne cut Bartlett's lead to 2 with 4:25 left.

Zion-Benton outscored the Hawks 47-28 in the second half. Whitaker, who finished with 22 points and 4 rebounds, kept Bartlett around. His last basket with 3:28 left in the game pulled the Hawks to within 6, but that's as close as the Hawks got.