Seniors lead Benet past Marian Central

With senior night approaching and six seniors on his roster, Benet girls basketball coach Joe Kilbride faced a dilemma. Leave it to Kathleen Doyle to solve it for him.

"I talked to a couple of seniors because I didn't know what to do on senior night because there's six of them," Kilbride said, alluding to the common practice of putting every senior on the roster in the starting lineup for senior night. "She came to me and said, 'Coach, I'm the one who shouldn't start. I've been starting for four years. The rest of them need to do this.' She kind of talked me into it because initially I thought I've got to start her."

The Redwings suffered no senior night letdown, routing visiting Marian Central 69-39 on Wednesday night in Lisle. The victory clinched the East Suburban Catholic Conference championship for the Redwings (25-3, 7-0) for the first time since 1998.

"Over the years we've struggled in this conference," Doyle said. "It's a really tough conference to play in, and we're just proud to leave our legacy and finally get another year up on that banner in the gym. That was kind of our goal all season."

"It's a significant accomplishment," Kilbride added. "We've been talking about it for a few weeks now. I think our conference is the best conference in the state. We've been trying to win it for a long time and just never got it done. I'm just happy to finally get it done."

Seniors Maddie Bozych, Megan Will and Sydney Stephens joined regulars Elise Stout and Sami Valentine in the Redwings' starting lineup.

Doyle entered the game with 3:09 left in the first quarter and the Redwings leading 8-7. Benet finished the period with a 13-0 run, Doyle scoring 8 of those points. By halftime the Redwings led 39-18.

"I was a little worried," Kilbride said. "I just wasn't sure because we were starting a different group. The seniors, they did a nice job."

Coming off the bench didn't throw Doyle off her game. The Nebraska recruit finished with 15 points, 3 steals and 2 assists in just about 13 minutes of playing time.

"It was different, but I'm happy to do whatever to make my teammates' night special," Doyle said. "It was fun."

Stout led the Redwings with 18 points, adding 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals while also playing limited minutes.

"She's been locked in lately," Kilbride said of Stout. "She's struggled a little bit with her shooting, but she's been taking extra shots and she's been on fire in practice."

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