Benet tops Montini

Aria Mazza was a starter at her previous school, but she’s found her niche at Benet this season as the first girl off the bench.

She shot with the confidence of a star Monday.

The 5-foot-7 junior guard, starting with Bridget Rifenburg out with a sprained ankle, stuck Benet’s two biggest shots of the night.

Mazza twice drilled 3-pointers after Montini tied it on two occasions in the fourth quarter, and scored 13 of her 16 points over the final eight minutes as Benet held on for a 63-58 win over the visiting Lady Broncos.

Mazza, who transferred to Benet from Conant this season, had taken just three shots over the first three quarters Monday. But she showed no hesitation with the game on the line, and Benet’s 11-point first-half lead gone.

“Just have to wait for the open shot and when you have it, take it. Just take good shots,” said Mazza, who was 4 for 7 from the 3-point line, 4 for 6 from the free-throw line and also grabbed seven rebounds. “If you take a deep breath and just stay in the moment, it’s fine.”

Emilia Sularski scored 18 points and Lindsay Harzich 13 for Benet (20-6), which hit 12 of 22 3-point shots in turning the tables from a 59-52 loss to Montini at the Montini Christmas Tournament. Victoria Matulevicius scored 23 points and Nikki Kerstein 18 for Montini (24-7).

Montini twice trailed by 11 points in the first half, and by 33-25 at halftime, but closed to 44-42 by the end of the third quarter.

Kerstein’s driving layup tied it 44-44 11 seconds into the fourth quarter, but Mazza came right back at the other end with a 3-pointer. After Matulevicius scored in transition to tie it 51-51, Mazza had the answer again with a deep 3-pointer for a 54-51 lead with 3:52 left.

Not done, Mazza stole the ball at the other end, then assisted a Harzich basket.

Benet coach Joe Kilbride, noting that Mazza, Sularski and Harzich all shoot around 35% from distance, was glad to see it.

“Aria’s been really good for us all year. Tonight she really had it going, which was great to see, because we needed every one of them,” Kilbride said. “She has such a quick release. She struggled a little bit shooting early in the year for her, but second half of the season she’s got it going. We need it.”

Benet has got it going since that first Montini loss, 11-1 over its last 12 games with the lone loss by five to Nazareth.

“We’ve come so far, so proud of our team,” Sularski said. “Amazing how much progress we’ve made.”

Sularski was the one who had it going early. She hit five consecutive 3-point shots, and four of Benet’s seven in the first half.

“Past few games I haven’t really been getting my shots up,” Sularski said. “This was a confidence booster.”

She only took one shot in the fourth quarter, not a problem the way Mazza was going.

“We needed that at the end,” Sularski said. “Her hitting at the end, with that much pressure, it was insane. That was impressive.”

Mazza said she wanted to come to Benet to start freshman year, but COVID happened, her brother was still at Conant and she decided to stay until she could drive.

Kilbride said she’s been great fuel for his team off the bench this season, but hesitated to identify Mazza as a bench player.

“She’s really a starter, she just isn’t starting,” Kilbride said. “But she’s very good off the bench because she’s a smart kid and can see what to do.”

Montini coach Shannon Spanos wasn’t surprised to see Benet shoot with the efficiency it did Monday. Nor was she surprised to see her team rally the way it did

The Lady Broncos were coming off a second-place finish at the GCAC Tournament, and lost Monday for just the third time since the second week of December.

“We knew that they are a very good shooting team. We knew they’d shoot the ball well and they did,” Spanos said. “Unfortunately we didn’t close out hard enough, we were over-helping, but credit to them that they shot thee ball well. But our girls, they don’t quit.”

Kerstein, who took just three shots in the first half, was the catalyst to the comeback. A tremendous passer, Kerstein scored 14 of her 18 in the second half.

“I had a discussion with her right before we went out there and I said you need to be a threat,” Spanos said. “She loves to facilitate but she is a lethal scorer. She needs to be a threat so people respect that part of her game.”