Perfect at Pops: A feel-good home finale for Streator

STREATOR – The first quarter belonged to the Wilmington Wildcats.

The second quarter belonged to Payton Benning.

The third quarter belonged to Jack Haynes.

And the fourth quarter?

That belonged to the nine Streator seniors who took the floor at Pops Dale Gymnasium one last time, especially team manager Brian Moats, who also was taking it for the first time.

The host Bulldogs finished this COVID-19-shortened campaign 6-0 at The Pops and improved to 9-3 on the season, heading into their Friday night finale at Coal City. SHS overcame a slow start – or more accurately, an energy-filled, impressively fast start by visiting Wilmington – for a 72-43 victory.

“I loved every moment of playing here. It was great every moment.”

—  Streator senior Payton Benning

After Haynes scored the game’s opening basket, the Wildcats (7-3) embarked on a 10-0 run, dominating the glass and driving to the hole seemingly at will against the caught-off-guard Bulldogs.

However, Streator cut that deficit to 14-9 by the close of the first quarter ... and that’s when the Payton Benning Show took center court.

“We have a lot of respect for the program Bill (Karavites, Wilmington’s head coach) is building, and they got off to a fast start,” Bulldogs coach Beau Doty said. “To get off to the starts we have, down 14 last night (in a win at Lisle) and down nine tonight ... we got a spark from our bench, guys like (Logan Williamson) and Owen (Mascal) and Sawyer (Good) and Dewayne (Nutall) came in and did what seniors are supposed to do in their last game on their home floor.

“And Payton was fantastic.”

Streator outscored Wilmington, 24-8, in the tide-turning second quarter, with Payton Benning’s fingerprints on almost every basket and stop. By quarter’s end, the 5-10 senior had scored 11 points and assisted on two of the six field goals he didn’t score himself.

“We just pushed the ball and played smart and boxed out, because we were giving up too many offensive rebounds (in the first quarter),” Benning said.

“I loved every moment of playing here. It was great every moment.”

The 33-22 halftime advantage only grew in the third, as Haynes took the reins, scoring a dozen of Streator’s 22 third-quarter points en route to the Bulldogs building a 55-36 lead by the end of the eight-minute stanza.

Streator shot 62.5% (20 of 32) from the floor in the middle quarters. Wilmington was never able to recover.

“We did have a great start, lot of energy,” said Karavites, whose Wildcats were led by an impressive double-double (16 points, 14 rebounds) from 6-4 senior Ben Kreitz. “I think (Streator’s) depth got to us as the game went on. They have a lot of players who can do a lot of different things, a lot of different weapons.”

In complete control, Doty – at the urging of his players and with the consent of Karavites – allowed Good to give fellow senior Moats his uniform and entered the team manager into the game with 2:31 to play. Moats showed a little flash and no fear of shooting, making two baskets to joyful eruptions from the Bulldogs bench.

“Brian has meant so much to our program the last four years,” Doty said. “He’s been at everything, he’s done a great job, and he’s one of the boys. ...

“That was great of our kids. We’ve been fortunate to have kids like this. They’re great kids, and they’re dedicated.”

Haynes (20 points, nine rebounds) and Payton Benning (14 points, four assists, three steals) led the Bulldogs. They were followed in the scorebook by Amarion Ford (11 points, three assists, three steals), A.J. Benning (nine points), Good (five points), Moats (four points), Mascal (three points, five rebounds) and the trio of Max Baker, Blake Ewing and Nutall (two points each), with Logan Williamson adding three assists.

The game at Coal City is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday. Streator’s sophomore team had its season prematurely ended by COVID-19 exposure.