Dayton-Waitsburg’s Freshman phenom Claudia Benavides scored a career high 25 points Wednesday in leading her team to a 69-43 victory over Liberty Christian in an Eastern Washington Athletic Conference contest.

Her effort also nabbed her the $100 bill her Grandfather Sal Benavides has been holding onto until she finally scored 20 points in a game. The results also moved D-W up in the standings, giving them a shot at playing in the district tournament, a tournament they weren’t even thinking about a week ago when they had zero wins. They have now scored three league wins in a row with their first against Walla Walla Valley Academy and two over LC.

“Tonight was the best night,” Benavides said. “We played together as a TEAM and I can’t wait for the playoffs.”

Junior Sadie Seney provided 18 points on the offensive side as the dynamic duo were unstoppable in the make-up game from the December cancellation. Her most amazing shot of the night was a shot with six minutes left in the game that hit the rim and bounced straight up into the air and came down through the net.

“Benavides had a career high 25 points and Seney was successful at the perimeter four times,” Assistant Coach Desirae Jones said. “We are very proud of the girls for continuing to work hard and focus on the little wins throughout the season, and last night was a big win for them.”

The win improved Dayton-Waitsburg to 3-6 in league and 3-14 overall.

Unlike their last meeting, Dayton-Waitsburg wasted no time in getting the offense going, thus not having to come from behind. Liberty Christian scored first on a three-pointer by Hannah Bush. But Benavides’ first points, back-to-back bank shots from under the basket gave D-W the lead for good.

A beautiful running 10-foot floater from senior Kirsten Miller was followed up by a steal and layup by Benavides. With this the team established the rhythm of the game and the mood in the gym that would carry over into the boys’ game.

Offense wasn’t the only thing Dayton-Waitsburg did well, they also played strong defense. They held Emma Reed to 22 and Bush to 12. Those two were the only offense for the Patriots and the tough defense proved fruitful especially from the 3-point range where they held LC to 6-25 from beyond the arc.

“Defense was the key in the win last night against LC, especially in the third quarter,” Jones said. “Emma Reed is a strong and aggressive player. It was a great team effort and Kirsten Miller was especially effective in slowing her down.”

Liberty Christian only scored two points in the third quarter to D-W’s 15, resulting in an 18-point lead going into the final eight minutes. Bush scored her teams only points of the quarter a minute into the second half. Dayton-Waitsburg’s defense forced seven turnovers and eight awkward shots from three-point range by the Patriots.

During that opening second half stretch, Benavides put up 12 points all within a couple feet of the hoop. Senior Kira Boggs had three-pointer squeezed in that 15-2 quarter. Despite the advantage, D-W struggled in the third quarter as well, as neither team scored over the final four and half minutes.

“Tonight was definitely another night that I felt every single person on our team showed up to battle,” Miller said. “I am so proud of how everyone worked together and played as one.”

Senior Destiny Brincken added key momentum shifting buckets in the first half. With three minutes left in the first half, Liberty Christian created a brief scare with two buckets by Reed, including a three-pointer to make the score 28-23. Following a key timeout after the basket by Head Coach Tamira Culley, Brincken came out and hit an eight-footer and then a 15-footer.

Dayton-Waitsburg had eight players score points, the most exciting of which came from reserve Freshman Cecelia Acevedo. She scored the final four points of the game over the final minute.

Columbia Burbank 71, Dayton-Waitsburg 22

Dayton-Waitsburg knew coming into Friday’s contest it would have its hands full with the undefeated Burbank Coyotes in an EWAC clash. Instead it turned into a miserable senior’s night, losing 71-22.

To honor their four Seniors playing in their last home game, Head Coach Tamira Culley started Kira Boggs, McKenzie Dobbs, Destiny Brincken, and Kirsten Miller. Along with Junior Sadie Seney, this group played most of the first quarter and came out playing hard. But a hot shooting Coyote offense combined with nine turnovers and five missed shots saw Burbank race out to a 17-0 lead before a Seney free throw put D-W on the board. A follow up three-pointer by Seney got the crowd briefly excited before the first eight minutes resulted in a Burbank 29-7 lead.

“We have to be able to take care of the ball in order to compete in any game,” Assistant Coach Desirae Jones said. “This hurt us last night.”

Dayton-Waitsburg finished with 35 turnovers and were desperately missing one of its best players Claudia Benavides, who was out because of an illness. While her offensive and defensive prowess wouldn’t have changed the outcome, it would have changed the lack of cohesiveness as the team never gelled in this contest. It was a complete contrast to the results of Wednesday’s win.

Tri-Cities Prep 57, Dayton-Waitsburg 30

Dayton-Waitsburg had its moments including a strong 11-11 first quarter but the second quarter was a totally different story in an EWAC loss to Tri-Cities Prep 57-30.

A 22-3 second quarter deflated its hopes of staying close to the Jaguars (10-1, 14-5).

“We had some really strong play against TCP and some let downs that let them get ahead,” Jones said. “Again, we had more turnovers than we wanted to see. But overall, the girls played tough and worked hard together.”

Sadie Seney led Dayton-Waitsburg with nine points and Claudia Benavides returned from Friday’s illness to score eight.

D-W (3-8, 3-16) had one more regular season game, a league matchup at DeSales on Tuesday Feb. 4. Following that contest will be the league tournament this weekend.

The current set up for the EWAC girls basketball tournament being held in Granger, Wash. is game one pitting East 3 against West 2. Game two is West 4 against East 1 followed by West 3 against East 2 with the final game Saturday Feb. 8 being East 4 against West 1. In the double elimination tournament, games would follow on Tuesday Feb 11, Thursday Feb. 13 and Monday Feb. 17. Dayton is currently the East No. 3 seed and would likely face a rematch with Mabton.

1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final

Liberty Christian

12 15 2 14 43

Dayton-Waitsburg 21 11 15 22 69

Liberty Christian (43): E. Reed 22, Bush 12, L. Reed 5, Drinkard 2, Thompson 2. 3-pts: 6-25, E. Reed 3, Bush 2, L. Reed. Fouls: 11. Fouled out: Wilson. Turnovers: 23. Free Throws: 1-4. Rebounds 22.

Dayton-Waitsburg (69): Benavides 25, Seney 18, Brincken 7, Laughery 6, Miller 4, Acevedo 4, Boggs 3, Larsen 2. 3-pts: 8-18, Seney 4, Laughery 2, Brincken, Boggs. Fouls: 12. Turnovers: 19. Free Throws: 1-5. Rebounds 44.

1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final

Burbank

29 12 17 13 71

Dayton-Waitsburg 7 10 2 3 22

Burbank (71): Johnson 14, Jacobo 13, A. Kinsey 10, Stanley 9, S. Kinsey 6, Talley 6, Larson 5, Curtis 4, Dyer 2, Stafford 2. 3-pts: 1-7, Jacobo. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: Wilson. Turnovers: 11. Free Throws: 15-22. Rebounds 27.

Dayton-Waitsburg (22): Dobbs 6, Seney 5, Laughery 3, Forney 3, Culley 3, Kira 2. 3-pts: 3-11, Culley, Seney, Laughery. Fouls: 17. Fouled out: Boggs. Turnovers: 35. Free Throws: 5-10. Rebounds 30.

1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final

Dayton-Waitsburg 11 3 8 8 30

Tri-Cities Prep

11 22 10 14 57

Dayton-Waitsburg (30): Seney 9, Benavides 8, Culley 3, Dobbs 3, Laughery 3, Forney 2, Larsen 2. 3-pts: 3, Seney, Laughery, Culley. Fouls: 15. Turnovers: 37. Rebounds 27.

Tri-Cities Prep (57): Martinez 14, Dickson 12, Chang 9, Brandner 7, Monteon 5, Ghirardo 4, Balcom 4, Long 2. 3-pts: 3, Brandner, Martinez, Chang. Fouls: 11. Turnovers: 14. Rebounds 30.