By Mark Gregory
@Hear_The_Beard
AURORA – From the opening play of the game, Benet showed what its game plan would be against Hinsdale South’s 6-foot, 10-inch Barret Benson – team defense.
The Redwings used that team defense and aggressive scoring in the second half to earn a 60-43 win and a shot at winning the East Aurora Sectional title. Benet will play at 7 p.m. Friday against the winner of Glenbard West and York.
The Redwings put senior Danny Sobolewski on Benson and ran helpers at the Northwestern University commit.
“We knew we were at a serious size disadvantage going into the game and we knew Barret is one of the best players in the state,” said Benet coach Gene Heidkamp. “He is an unbelievable player with a great future and he has had an unbelievable career. We knew that we would have to do something to offset him, because he is too good of a player to guard one-on-one. We knew we would have to guard him with team defense and make it difficult for him to score. Danny did a great job on him on his own, but Danny isn’t big enough to guard him on his own so we knew we needed some help on him.”
While the Redwings went into the game with a plan to hold Benson, who ended the game with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting, a plan is only as good as those executing it.
“My message was short to the guys after the game,” Heidkamp said. “It wasn’t the plan, the execution that won the game. You can come up with any plan you want, but it is the execution and toughness of the kids. They really competed in the lane and on the glass and we really needed to do that because of our size disadvantage.”
Once the Redwings knew they could hold Benson, they then had to get on track offensively.
Benet shot just 9-of-20 in the first half and after holding a 13-5 lead, found themselves tied with the Hornets at 19-19 at the intermission.
The Redwings tallied the first six points of the second half to begin to pull away. After Hinsdale South cut the lead to 30-27, Benet nailed three straight 3-point field goals to build a 12 point advantage.
“We seemed to be very rushed offensively in the first half and I will credit their defense for that,” Heidkamp said. “In the second half, we were more poised and we got to the basket and made the extra pass and they ended up being open threes. We were more aggressive offensively in the second half and were more in sync.”
James Dockery led the Benet offense with 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting (2-of-4 from three), while Liam Lyman tallied 15 and Jason Malonga had 14.