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Benet shoots down York

Benet possesses a luxury few basketball teams do, and the Redwings know it.

Five starters who all can shoot.

"We have a lot of weapons on this team," Redwings senior Danielle Canulli said. "It's our job to find out who's on that night. The other night it was (Ashley) Veselik. Tonight it was Sidney (Prasse). It could be any of us."

Canulli scored 14 points, and Prasse 13 with three of Benet's seven 3-pointers in a 57-40 win over York at the Benet/Naperville North Holiday Tournament in Lisle.

Benet (8-4) had it all going in the first half. The Redwings led by as many as 21 after Prasse's third 3-pointer and took a cozy 35-16 lead into the break.

That allowed Redwings coach Peter Paul to rest his starters for a big chunk of the second half, perhaps looking ahead to tonight's game with Geneva.

"We jumped on them early and everybody got a chance to play, so we're very pleased," Paul said. "Tomorrow will be a different story."

York (6-4), which had won three in a row coming in, was never in it after spotting Benet an early 7-1 lead.

Wrong opponent, wrong night.

"Benet's offense preaches patience, there's a lot of screening," York coach Jason Reinecke said, "and it really forces us to play as a team, to talk through screens and help each other out. When you come out flat and you're a step behind against an offense like that it's going to compound it. We dug ourselves a hole. You can't do that against a team like that."

The Dukes did manage to get the margin to 44-34 a minute into the fourth quarter, but a Christen Prasse 3-pointer stemmed the tide.

Christen Prasse had 8 points for Benet.

"We just find the open girl," Sidney Prasse said. "Whoever's hot, we keep going to them. It works out for us."

Mary Colon had 15 points and 8 rebounds and Nicole Brown 13 points for York.

"You don't look for moral victories you look for wins," Reinecke said, "but we did fight back in the second half. We know Benet's good and we know we're going to have to play well to compete with them. I would have liked to have seen us come out with that intensity in the first half."

Next up for Benet is yet another highly regarded opponent in Geneva. The Redwings have already played Bartlett twice, Fenwick, Trinity and Marist.

They welcome the opportunity.

"We have a talented team," Canulli said, "and we can compete with some of the best teams. We look forward to playing Geneva. We really want that one."

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