Benet Academy girls basketball duo puts in the miles to lead their team
On and off the basketball court, Benet’s four-year varsity duo of Emma Briggs and Bridget Rifenburg are hard to pin down.
On a team that essentially plays five guards, this pair of 6-footers initiates the Redwings offensively from the defensive end. They’re both essentially wing players, or will be in college, but they’ll defend inside and also handle the ball, fast, downhill.
“They’re just both so good in space and really hard to guard. They get to the rim, finish, pass it,” Benet coach Joe Kilbride said.
“They’re basketball players. They’re very representative of this whole positionless basketball thing that everyone talks about.”
In a sport that penalizes traveling, Rifenburg and Briggs embrace it — off the court.
Rifenburg, from Downers Grove, who committed to the University of Richmond from among 11 scholarship offers, recently concluded her summer season with the Wolverinas club that trains in Libertyville.
The Wolverinas took her from Iowa to Las Vegas to Arizona, where they went 17-0 over the three sessions before winding up at Chicago’s McCormick Place to conclude her Elite Youth Basketball League summer campaign.
Briggs’ schedule goes overseas. Born to a British father, Richard, and a Chinese mother, Jessica, Emma was born in Beijing and moved to the United States when she was 4.
A British citizen, Briggs lives with her family in Glen Ellyn but is also a member of Great Britain’s 18-Under Women’s National Team. Just days after school ended in June she left for basketball camp in Nottingham, England.
Briggs visited German, Slovakia and Austria before the Brits went to Lithuania for the FIBA U18 Women’s EuroBasket 2025 Division B. Great Britain finished sixth of 21 teams, Briggs averaging 6.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists.
Stationary long enough for a phone call, Briggs spoke from Rock Hill, S.C., playing with the U17s of her local club team, M14, out of Aurora.
“I think it’s definitely a privilege that I can do it,” Briggs said of the travel. “Not a lot of 16 year olds can say they’ve been to as many countries as I have.”
States, too. Her seven scholarship offers include San Francisco and St. Mary’s in California and Cornell in New York, where she’d planned visits along with another to Furman in South Carolina.
Incoming three-year starters at Benet Academy, Briggs and Rifenburg put up nearly identical statistics last season as all-East Suburban Catholic Conference juniors — both around 10 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals on a team that went 29-3.
“I think our connection on the court is great, we’re always aware of each other,” Briggs said.
When she returned from Lithuania, off a 10-point, 10-rebound game against Iceland, she reached Rifenburg to grab some dinner at Chipotle.
“Me and Bridget go there all the time, post-practice, postgame,” said Briggs, who like Rifenburg is trying flag football this fall for the Redwings.
Their unity is kind of ironic. Kilbride said that as the best players on their respective middle-school teams, Briggs and Rifenburg went at each other hard.
“They came in as these sworn enemies,” the coach said, “but have become great friends and teammates.”
With returning starting point guard Ava Mersinger, a junior, Rifenburg and Briggs look to translate what they’ve learned the past three seasons to this year’s team, which returns nine players.
Freshman regulars on a 2023 Class 4A runner-up, Briggs and Rifenburg look to lead a cohesive, hardworking unit deep into the season.
“No drama,” said Rifenburg, who Kilbride said was voted by teammates last season as Benet’s hardest worker.
“I feel like the last three years we’ve had really good senior leadership, and I’ve been able to watch that happen. So being able to implement it for the underclassmen and being able to have that same energy (is a goal),” Rifenburg said.
“The goal is always state,” Briggs said.
“I think me and Bridget are very focused on that part, but also I think we care a lot for our team in general. Our teammates are amazing, we’re very close friends with all of them,” she said.
“So, I think the goal is to have a great senior season but also be the senior leaders our teammates need us to be so we can have the best overall season possible.”