Youthful Benet steps up to Pontiac challenges with quarterfinal victory
PONTIAC — Considering that Benet leans heavily on a number of underclassmen in its playing rotation, it is rather easy to think ahead to how good the Redwings might be in the future.
But the present day doesn’t look too shabby either.
Faced with a stern challenge and a tie game early in the third quarter during a quarterfinal matchup with Oak Park-River Forest, Benet responded as if the floor were filled with seasoned veterans as it broke away for a 60-48 win.
The win lifts third-seeded Benet (13-0) into Saturday’s semifinal round where it will face second-seeded Bloom (8-3) at 2:30 p.m. Bloom defeated defending champion Simeon 45-39 in its quarterfinal matchup.
The pivot point of the game came midway through the third quarter. Oak Park-River Forest erased a 32-23 halftime lead for Benet by scoring the first nine points of the second half to knot things at 32. It seemed as if the Huskies had seized control of the contest, but Benet’s young core responded more like you’d expect a veteran group to do.
Junior guard Blake Fagbemi and sophomore center Colin Stack turned into a two-man wrecking crew. The duo combined for the next 17 points Benet scored, and Oak Park-River Forest would only match that flurry with six points of its own.
Benet was firmly back in control of the game.
“I should say I’m not gonna talk about how old they are, because that gets overused by coaches and all that stuff,” Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. “If they are old enough to play on the varsity, they are old enough to play the right way.
“It was good to see our guys step up and answer a little bit when they basically gave us a big punch. I thought it could have gone either way at that point, and I thought our guys stepped up and played really well.”
It a was a particularly impressive performance from Stack. The 7-foot sophomore finished with 17 points on a perfect 8-for-8 shooting performance from the floor. Stack also made life tough in the paint for the Huskies.
“I’ve think I’ve had (confidence),” Stack said. “There’s been droughts where I haven’t scored, and I’ve had times where I’ve done a decent job of scoring but not at a high pace. I just want to play the game.”
Stack’s evolution into a major scoring threat isn’t lost on his coach and his teammates.
“Colin just gets better every time he plays,” Heidkamp said. “He runs the floor well. He’s getting some dunks, he’s making some 3-point shots, he’s defending on the other end. He’s playing a complete game. And I’ll probably regret saying this, but for a guy his size, he doesn’t turn the ball over very much.”
Another sophomore, Jayden Wright, led Benet’s first-half surge. Wright scored 15 of his game-high 19 points before the break. Wright connected on 3-pointers on three of Benet’s first four possessions. He was also charged with defending Oak Park’s top scorer, Max Johnson, who led the Huskies with 16 points, but he had to work for those.
“Jayden played really well tonight,” Heidkamp said. “He came out with a lot of purpose and made his shots early, got to the rim and made some really good plays, and I thought he played really good defense. I know, Johnson scored a lot of points, but he made him try to earn as much as he got. I thought Jayden played well on both ends of the floor.”