BENTON — A willingness to share is a widely considered a great personality trait, except when it comes to something such as say, a conference championship.

The Massac County Patriots had no problems being selfish, winning the SIRR Ohio championship outright with a 51-48 win at Benton Tuesday night. The Rangers would’ve grabbed a share of the conference title with the win.

A night after the Lady Patriots spoiled Benton’s chance to win the SIRR Ohio girls’ championship outright and put themselves into position to grab a share of the title, the Rangers had a chance to return the favor.

The Patriots had other ideas. They were sensational from the free throw line, making 24 of 28, including six straight (by three different players) in the final 1:09. Senior JJ Sweatt led the parade to the line for Massac County, making 11 of 13 on his way to a game high 20 points.

“It’s big,” Sweatt said. “Going into this year, we thought we were playing in November. We were rescheduled to February. We knew conference was all we got, so we knew that’s what we wanted. We were focused on that all year, and we banded together for 10 games, and we were ready to fight.”

The fight went right down to the final second until Reece Johnson’s potential game-tying three-pointer fell short.

“Different kids made different plays tonight,” said Patriots’ head coach Joe Hosman. “If somebody told me being this young we were going to win the conference this year, I’d have said ‘you’re crazy.’ I am so proud of this group. We had a chance to share or win it outright, and we came in here and beat a very good basketball team.

Hosman’s freshman son, Isaac, added 12 for the Patriots.

Jacob Seidel led Benton with 16. Johnson added 12.