The 50th annual Benton Invitational Tournament (B.I.T.) kicked off on Monday, Jan. 20. Playing in Benton can be memorable for a Herrin fan, especially if one was in attendance the last time Herrin faced off against the Benton Rangers two seasons ago. Last year, Herrin was in third place in the B.I.T. following a 66-67 loss to the Pinckneyville Panthers in the semi-finals. This loss sent Herrin to the consultation bracket. Both the Herrin and Benton fanbase wanted the opportunity to face off.
Even after Pinckneyville advanced to the championship game, Benton defeated the Panthers to take home the title of the B.I.T. Benton then went on to continue their success throughout the season and even placed second in the IHSA State Series last March.
Even though Pinckneyville has moved over to the Sparta Tournament, the rivalry between Benton and Pinckneyville still stands. Benton took home the championship title of the Duster Thomas Hoops Classic, which took place in Pinckneyville’s home gym just a few weeks ago following a 51-50 final score.
Pinckneyville then took revenge and gave Benton their first and only loss of this season when Pinckneyville scored 51 points and held Benton to 36 points. This record shows Benton is the favored team to take home the championship because of their record of 17 wins to one loss.
Continuing with the bracket for the 50th annual B.I.T. are teams from St. Louis (Roosevelt), Carterville, Hamilton County, Meridian, Vandalia, Herrin, and Sesser-Valier. On the tournament’s first day, multiple records were broken and one formed. Benton senior star standout player Docker Tedeschi, a 6 ‘9 senior, scored 50 points. This achievement led Tedeschi to set a new school record for the most points scored in a game and the most points scored in a single game of the B.I.T. Of those 50 points, 42 were made field goals, leading to a new B.I.T. record as well.
Benton defeated their opponent, Roosevelt, sending the Rangers to the semifinals. Carterville then took on Hamilton County, in which the Lions defeated the Foxes 58-25. On Jan. 21, the opposing side of the bracket kicked off with Meridian vs. Vandalia. Meridian, the reigning class 1A state runner-up, cut it close, taking the win by only 6 points. The final score over Vandalia was 76-70.
Herrin took on Sesser shortly after this game. This was Herrin’s second time playing the Red Devils. The first time they matched up was earlier this year in the Du Quoin Tip-Off, where Herrin beat them 64-51. Starting the game, Herrin led 15-7. They continued the lead throughout the second quarter with a score of 26-13 heading into halftime. Coming back from the first part of the game, Sesser went on a run making the score 39-30 with Herrin still in the lead heading into the last quarter of regulation. But the Tigers took home the win once again following a 50-39 win.
Kyrese Lukens (12) led by scoring 15 points and Madox Billingsley (12) was right behind Lukens in scoring with 13 points.
Jan. 23 saw Hamilton County defeat Roosevelt with a 59-28 score. Then Sesser faced Vandalia, where Sesser won 87-36.
Jan. 24, the Carterville Lions took on Benton. Carterville gave Benton a good fight, putting up points consistently. The score at halftime was 38-31 with Benton in the lead, but the Lions still fell short with a score of 42 against the Rangers’ 52. This win for the Rangers sent them to the Championship game, while the Lions took their spot in the third and fourth-place game.
Finally, on the night of Jan. 24, Herrin took on Meridian. Meridian came out for this game firing, having a 9-point lead over the Tigers in the first quarter. Herrin continued to trail (38-49 at the end of the third quarter) but tied it up in the fourth quarter, sending the game into overtime.
The Tigers fell short to Meridian by just 4 points, with a final score of 67-71. Leading scoring in this game was both Grady Cox (12) and Kyrese Lukens with 18 points each. In a similar fashion to last year, Herrin found themselves in the consolation bracket while the stage was set for a 1A v 2A runner-up championship game.
On the morning of Jan. 25, Roosevelt took on Sesser for the fifth and sixth place game. Sesser landed in fifth place after a dominant 87-36 win. Following that game, the seventh and eighth place game took place between Hamilton County and Vandalia, where the game was extremely close. Hamilton County came out on top by just one point with a 46-45-point win.
That same evening, the Rich Herrin Gymnasium started filling up early to watch Herrin take on the Carterville Lions for the third time this season. When Herrin played Carterville for their first conference matchup on the Lions’ home court over a month ago, Herrin won 56-49. The second time the teams met up was the championship game of the Eldorado Holiday Tournament. Herrin went home with the trophy following a 61-50-point win. Going into the third and fourth place game Herrin was the favorable winner.
To start the game, the Tigers led 25-13 over the Lions and continued the same lead, ending the first half of the game with 40 points, while the Lions only had 28. In the end, the Tigers took care of business once again after defeating the Lions 68-59. Lukens led the Tigers in scoring after having 28 points. Jared Staple (12) had 16 points. Benton took their home court for the championship game against the Meridian Bobcats. Meridian quickly proved themselves but both teams scored back-to-back, giving Meridian a one-point lead over Benton ending the first quarter.
Meridian scored 14 points, while Benton scored 13. Meridian held Benton to only 9 points, giving them a major lead over the Rangers. Heading back to the locker rooms, Meridian led 35-24. Coming back from halftime at the end of the third quarter, Meridian continued their lead with a score of 51-35.
At this point, Meridian was wiping the hardwood with the Class 2A runners-up and putting on a show for the packed crowd. Antonio Flenoid JR (a key player for the Bobcats), brought the house down and secured the win for his team. Quarter 4 ended with a 75-65 victory for the Bobcats. Meridian took home first place in the 50th annual Rich Herrin Classic.
Continuing a trend from last year, Kyrese Lukens was named to the 2025 B.I.T All-Tournament Team. He said, “It was an honor getting named all-tournament again and it is exciting getting to play in the B.I.T.”
Other players named to the All-Tournament team were Docker Tedeschi (Benton), Grant Owens (Benton), Nolan Schafer (Benton), Antonio Flenoid, Jr (Meridian), Kaden Wilson (Carterville), Javionne Ranson (Meridian), Ethan Kessler (Hamilton County), Wade Brannon (Vandalia) and Kyan Short (Sesser-Valier).
Herrin has already played their next game, a makeup game against West Frankfort, but the Tigers will be home Jan. 31 for a conference match-up against the Carterville Lions.
This will be Herrin’s Pink Out game, and then the Tigers will face off against the Marion Wildcats in Marion on Saturday, Feb. 1. Sayler Shurtz, the head coach of the Varsity Tigers, stated, “We have a Williamson County rivalry each night, which makes both games special, especially one night being Pink Out; it just makes it mean more.”
The Tigers closed out the Benton Invitational with a record of 17 wins and four losses, and their most recent 61-43 win over West Frankfort improved them to an 18-4 record.
