Benet claims Fenwick crown

Jake Ronneberg and the Benet boys basketball team don't consider themselves raw.

In terms of varsity minutes, they may behind many teams, but in terms of confidence and ability, the Redwings believe they can fight against any other team. It all stems from practicing against a corps of seniors that led Benet to 23 wins last season.

"All of last year, we played against great players, our seniors from last year, we had a great group and they really helped all of us to prepare for this year," Ronneberg said. "So just playing against them, it helped us a lot."

That moxie showed Saturday. The Redwings held off a strong Fenwick team to claim a 46-39 victory and win the John Malone Memorial Thanksgiving Tournament in Oak Park.

"In practice, when we're all juniors and stuff, we get accustomed with the play," senior Jacob Petrovic said. "Even though we're not playing when we're juniors, because last year we had (Jack) Nolan and them, we just got out there, we knew what we had to do and we prepared for it last year and it transferred over to this year, so it's huge."

That confidence showed in the fourth quarter. After a pair of free throws by D.J. Steward cut the Benet lead to 40-38 with 3 minutes, 59 seconds to play, the Redwings (4-0) clamped down on both ends of the floor.

Benet held Fenwick to just a free throw over the final 3:59 and went 3 of 5 at the free-throw line to seal the win.

"We prepared really hard for them and we were just coming out trying to out-tough them," Petrovic said. "It proved through the game. It's just a huge win to win the tournament and be 4-0 right now."

The Redwings offense gave the Friars (3-1) fits throughout the night. Benet routinely held on for long possessions, making additional passes that found the open player.

"I think that's a big characteristic just of the group of guys we have this year," Ronneberg said. "It's just finding the extra man. We know that if one of us gets hot, we got to get them the ball. We just feel that's the best option for the team."

For good portions of the game, the hot hand belonged to Petrovic. The senior guard finished with a game-high 21 points.

"I'm just doing it for the team," Petrovic, who added 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals, said. "I don't really care about myself that much, but I'm trying to do everything for the team and if that means me knocking down shots, getting boards, getting assists; I'm just trying to win."

Ronneberg and senior David Buh also showed their ability to get hot. The duo had 12 points apiece and hit 3 3-pointers each.

Most importantly, though, Benet's man-to-man defense shut down an athletic Fenwick team and limited the Friars to 39 points a night after scoring 79 points.

"I thought we played excellent defense from start to finish and that kept us in the game," Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. "I thought that was important. I thought we did enough with the ball. They're very tough to play against. I thought defensively, that gave us a chance and then we made offensively to be able to pull it out."