Girls basketball: Benet builds big lead vs. St. Viator, wins 16th straight game
No. 2-ranked Daily Herald girls basketball team Benet Academy showed why they are going to be one of the teams to beat in the postseason when the Redwings faced host St. Viator Tuesday night.
Benet (16-1, 6-0) started off fast against the Lions as it built a commanding 27-7 lead after one quarter before taking a 37-14 lead into halftime in this East Suburban Catholic Conference battle.
From there, the Redwings never looked back as they built a 53-27 lead after three quarters before rolling to a 62-29 victory as the final seven minutes of the contest were played with a running clock.
St. Viator (11-9, 1-5) could not contain Benet senior Emma Briggs, who scored 13 of her game-high 23 points in the first half as the Redwings' size and depth kept the Lions off balance for the entire game.
After losing its first game of the season to Lyons by a score of 54-53, Benet has now rolled off 16 straight victories heading into its home game Wednesday night against Carmel Catholic.
"We had a good start. I thought our defense was really good early and I thought we moved the ball well and got some good shots," said Benet Academy coach Joe Kilbride, whose team jumped out to an 8-0 lead aided by two 3-pointers.
"We got a bit of a lead so I was able to play most of them in the first half and all of them for a good part of the second half which is nice because you don't always get a chance to let some of those kids play."
Two 3-pointers by sophomore Lucy Tierney (all 8 points in first half) to end the first quarter staked the Redwings to a 20-point lead before Tierney's inside hoop early in the second quarter extended the lead to 31-7.
"We're really a defensive team so we wanted to lock down all of their top players and best shooters and we definitely managed to do that," said Briggs, whose team defeated St. Viator 65-45 on Dec. 3.
"We definitely played better on defense in this game (than the first game against St. Viator) so we were locked into that, and I think we've definitely developed more as the season's gone on so our defense has improved. I think our mindset is just a game at a time kind of thing and just do our best all the time."
Junior Bella Gounaris scored 10 of her team-high 12 points in the first half for the Lions while teammates Kalin McCrea and Evelyn Hill scored 6 and 5 points, respectively. Benet junior Ava Mersinger scored 7 points while teammate Bridget Rifenburg added 6 points.
"The last game we played them I thought we battled and we kept it close for most of the game, but against a good team like that you've got to be on your game as much as possible and you've got to be consistent," said St. Viator coach Kyle Braheny.
"We had spurts where we played really well and there were spurts where they just overpowered us. She (Briggs) is a heck of a player, second chance opportunities hurt us, and they got some easy buckets on the back end because we didn't box out so we've got to be more physical."