Benet makes it look easy against Bartlett
It takes a very good girls basketball team to defeat Bartlett by 23 points.
Or, as Bartlett coach Dave Mello put it, "Benet's a phenomenal team."
While the Class 4A defending champion has a few new faces since last spring, there doesn't seem to be any change in the way the Redwings play. Benet got out to a big lead early in Friday's Benet/Naperville Central Tip-Off Tournament game in Lisle and never looked back, taking a 63-40 win.
"We had a good game today," Benet junior Katherine Jaseckas said, adding she'd like to see the Redwings cut down on their 20 turnovers. "Our team came out with a really good start and then we kept it going the whole time."
The Redwings will play Oswego East at 6 p.m. Saturday at Naperville Central hoping to repeat as tournament champions.
The Redwings pulled away thanks to their usual stifling full-court pressure, which forced 31 Bartlett turnovers for the game, 20 in the first half.
"Our coach (Joe Kilbride) always tells us to come out strong," Benet senior Sami Valentine said, "and defense is really a key aspect of our whole team."
"We're a pressure team," Mello added. "We want to be a pressure team, and hopefully by Christmas break, that's what our pressure is going to look like. We just put it in over the summer, we're still getting used to it. Today was obviously a tough test. (Nebraska-bound Benet point guard Kathleen) Doyle's a one-girl press break.
"...Their pressure, it was everywhere. We had a couple of different press breaks in, we were running girls to different spots. Before we could get the ball there they were getting a deflection or just getting a flat-out steal off it."
The first quarter saw four lead changes early, but the Redwings (5-0) pulled away to a 19-11 lead by the end of the period. The lead hit double digits when Elise Stout converted a steal into a layup in the first 30 seconds of the second quarter and never went back to single digits again. By halftime the Redwings led 37-24, though their lead had already hit 20.
"At halftime I looked up and (the Benet lead) was 13, and I came in and told them, with all of our turnovers and the way they were shooting the ball, I expected it to be a lot worse than 13, so I thought we were in a better spot than it seemed at the half," Mello said.
Stout led Benet with 13 points. Doyle added 12 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists, and Valentine scored 9 points to go with 4 steals.
"I'm not the biggest offensive player, so I really try to make it up with my defense," Valentine said. "I've really worked hard on my defense in practice."
Sophomore guard Kayla Hare scored 10 points to lead Bartlett. Senior Kaitlin Brohan was held to 8 points, about half her season average because of foul trouble.
Bartlett (2-2) meets Metea Valley at 4:30 p.m. Saturday for third place in the tournament.
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