Siloam Springs beats Gentry in game two

— After getting bounced by Farmington 53-31 in a nonconference game Tuesday at Panther Arena, the Siloam Springs Panthers returned to their home court and knocked off previously undefeated Gentry 60-41 in the boys semifinals of the Benton County Invitational.

Six-foot-4 senior Dylan Henson and his 6-foot-5 freshman brother Payton Henson each notched double-doubles of scoring and rebounding and Kyle Teague rebounded from a dreadful performance against the Cardinals that saw him foul out just seconds into the second half.

Teague scored a teamhigh 14 points against Gentry (6-1). Against Farmington, Teague was held to five points after picking up four fouls in the first half and his fifth shortly into the second half.

Against Gentry, Siloam Springs (4-1) got off to a bit of a sluggish start. Leading 4-1, Teague hit a 3-pointerfrom the top of the key and Tyler Tiger hit another trey in the corner to send the Panthers to a 10-1 lead.

“We started off like we had finished against Farmington,” Taylor said. “A lot of that is we’re young and I think we had some carryover with confidence issues. When we settled down, I thought we played a lot better.”

The Henson brothers went to work in the second quarter for Siloam Springs.

Payton Henson scored for a 12-3 lead and later hit a 3-pointer to go up 17-5. He had seven points in the second quarter while Dylan Henson had six in the quarter on three field goals.

Payton Henson finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds while Dylan Henson had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

“What we were so impressed with is they’ve both had double-digit points before,” Taylor said. “They’ve never had double-digit rebounds. That’s huge.”

Defensively, Taylor lauded the play of reserve Adam Hodge.

“I thought Adam Hodge did a great job of talking for us in the middle of our zone and getting guys to match,” he said.

The Panthers’ lead reached as many as 21 points in the second half.

Joe Morris led Gentry with 10 points.

“I thought early in the game it was really intense on both sides,” Gentry coach Conlan Efurd said. “We played about three minutes without hardly a score on the board. I wish we had made a couple of opportunities early to score, which would have definitely helped us in the long run.We just went flat for a little while.

“(Siloam Springs) is a good team, well-coached. Siloam is going to be a contender throughout the year. It was good for us to get a chance to play a nonconference game like this in a hostile arena on their home floor.”

Sports, Pages 7 on 12/09/2009