Benet makes wait worthwhile for big crowd
On the premier stage of the Proviso West Holiday Tournament, a big crowd came out on Monday to get a firsthand look at Benet's boys basketball team.
The Redwings, making their first appearance at Proviso West since 1986, rolled into the tournament quarterfinals with a 60-38 victory over Von Steuben in a game delayed nearly two hours because of a leaking roof in the gymnasium.
While Benet showed flashes of greatness in front of the 2,440 fans the largest morning session crowd in 12 years the Redwings hope to show much more the rest of this week.
Benet (11-0) will face New Trier (6-5), a 58-48 winner over Thornton Fractional North, at 3:45 p.m. Tuesday in Hillside.
"It was a long wait, but we still should have come out stronger than we did," said Wisconsin-bound Benet center Frank Kaminsky. "We were a little dead at the start, but it picked up."
Von Steuben (2-4) took leads of 2-0 and 4-1 before the Redwings seized control with a 12-1 run behind a half-court trapping defense that forced 10 first-half turnovers.
A pair of 3-pointers by Dave Sobolewski, a third from Matt Parisi and a dunk by Kaminsky helped Benet build a 30-18 halftime advantage. Pat Boyle's three-point play and another Kaminsky dunk made it 37-20 early in the third quarter, and Von Steuben never again pulled within single digits.
"We seemed to be a step behind the entire way," said Benet coach Gene Heidkamp. "I'm pleased that we were able to control the game at the end, but we're going to definitely need to clean some things up if we intend on moving on."
Benet built its biggest lead of 56-32 on Sobolewski's three-point play midway through the fourth quarter, when Heidkamp began pulling his key players.
Sobolewski scored a game-high 21 points and dished 8 assists while Kaminsky had 16 points, 7 rebounds and 6 blocks. Parisi tallied 10 points. Demetrius Faulkner scored 13 points for Von Steuben, which faces T.F. North in consolation bracket action Tuesday.
"We just had a little bit of a sluggish start, but it didn't take us long to pick up the tempo, and we got into our groove pretty quick," Sobolewski said. "We took care of business and now we're moving on to New Trier. A win's a win and that's all we really care about at this tournament."