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Redwings struggle offensively against Trinity

Despite his team's struggles this season, Benet girls basketball coach Peter Paul couldn't remember the last time the Redwings failed to score 20 points in a game.

On the road in River Forest, though, Paul's squad fell one point short of 20, dropping a 34-19 decision to Trinity Thursday night.

Benet's difficult night on offense included a scoreless second quarter, forcing the Redwings into an 18-6 halftime deficit.

"It's been a long time. I don't even remember the last time that happened," Paul said. "It was a long night.

"We were stuck on (6 points) forever it seemed like. We've talked about how can we limit (scoreless streaks), and today I thought we hung our head a little bit when things went wrong offensively. We can't afford to do that."

To their credit the Redwings (6-12) refused to let their struggling offense impact their performance and intensity on the defensive end of the court.

"I thought we battled very hard defensively. We kept a good team to (34) points," Paul said. "Defensively, I thought we played as well as we could."

The Blazers (12-3) jumped out to an early 10-2 lead behind 7 quick Divinity Brown points. Benet closed the deficit to 10-6 at the tail end of the first quarter before the rim seemingly shrank in size.

Turnovers once again plagued the Redwings, who lost possession of the ball a total of 32 times -- including 7 in the second quarter. Those turnovers led to just 5 field-goal attempts for the period.

"What we talked about really is, 'How do we take care of the basketball better?' " Paul said. "We just had too many turnovers, and you can't win very many ballgames when you've got that many turnovers.

"Give credit to Trinity. They pressured us, and we just reacted negatively to all their pressure."

Benet had seemingly built some momentum before the holidays with wins over Immaculate Conception and Elmwood Park, yet a return to practice after New Year's found the Redwings not playing their best basketball.

"We thought we didn't practice very well, and (Wednesday) was the first day back, so that had something to do with it," Paul said.

Sophomore Nicki Bell led Benet with 6 points, while senior Kelly Guess racked up 7 rebounds to go along with 4 points. Trinity's Shakyia Vassar led all scorers with 10.

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