Girls basketball: Nazareth snaps Benet’s 20-game winning streak
Sam Austin spent four quarters Wednesday going toe-to-toe in the paint with Benet’s two future Division I posts.
That is what Austin does as Nazareth’s unsung hero.
She rarely shoots, though.
So when Nazareth’s 5-foot-11 junior post found herself alone in the corner after taking a drive and kickout from Stella Sakalas, she paused.
“I thought about it for a second, because I thought is this the right shot at this time? But they weren’t coming out to guard me, so why not take it?” Austin said. “Coach always encourages me to shoot it and he gives me the green light. I’m not often in that position, but my coaches give me confidence to take that.”
Austin indeed took it, her first basket of the night the go-ahead score with 3:31 left.
Nazareth never looked back. The visiting Roadrunners went on to beat Benet 44-37 in an East Suburban Catholic Conference showdown to snap the Redwings’ 20-game winning streak.
Austin’s 3-point shot that gave Nazareth a 33-31 lead was just her second shot attempt of the night, but it brought a smile to the face of her coach Eddie Stritzel.
Austin scored Nazareth’s next basket, then added a key steal in the final minute with the Roadrunners holding a 38-34 lead.
“And she made a big layup, but her defense is just so good,” Stritzel said. “She doesn’t ask for anything. She was excited to play tonight.”
Austin finished with six points, 10 rebounds, three steals, two blocks – and that big, albeit rare 3-pointer.
“I don’t take a lot, but I’ve made a couple,” Austin said. “I had some on her trip to Florida. But normally I’m taking one a game.”
Sakalas had 15 points and six rebounds and Sophia Towne nine points and three steals for Nazareth (21-3, 7-1). Lucy Tierney scored nine points and Emma Briggs had seven with eight rebounds for Benet (20-2, 8-1).
Nazareth not only handed Benet its first loss since the first game of the season. It also avenged a surprisingly one-sided 58-36 loss to the Redwings back on Dec. 13, what remains the Roadrunners’ only loss to an in-state team.
“Benet came in and handed it to us, and we had a month to think about it,” Stritzel said. “It was a hard first couple couple weeks, the girls were battling confidence. But that Florida trip did wonders. It showed us that we can play with anybody in Illinois.”
The game was low-scoring – neither team scored for nearly three minutes at the start – and rough and tumble. Bodies frequently went hard to the floor.
Benet seemed to bear the brunt of it.
Junior point guard Ava Mersinger was helped off the court after rolling her ankle midway through the second quarter, and didn’t return. Tierney hurt her back in the fourth quarter on a fall, and senior guard Macy Menendez was also banged up.
“Ava sprained her ankle, seemed like a pretty good one, she’ll be alright – I’m more worried about Lucy with her back. She got her legs taken out pulled to the ground," Benet coach Joe Kilbride said. “Ava will be back, when I don’t know.”
Kilbride agreed it was a rough game.
Rifenburg’s driving layup with 4:46 left gave Benet a 31-30 lead, but the Redwings didn’t score again for nearly four minutes.
“It was a physical game, we got beat on the glass a little bit in the first half,” Kilbride said. “I didn’t think we played particularly well but we had some shots at the end. It was a very difficult game, we lose Ava, we lose Lucy. I was proud of them that they gave themselves a chance.”
Benet led 18-12 at half, holding Nazareth to 4-for-21 over the first two quarters.
But the Roadrunners quickly got rolling out of the break with a Towne putback and deep 3-pointer from the top of the key.
Two Sakalas free throws and a Sakalas 3-pointer started a 7-0 run to give Nazareth a 24-21 lead. Lyla Shelton, who scored all seven of her points in the third quarter, hit a three to end the run.
The Roadrunners scored 18 points in the quarter.
“We all believe in each other and we believe in ourselves,” said Sakalas, a BYU recruit. “When we can get each other going with extra passes and shots that is what happens. We just played our own game.”
Nazareth has not allowed its last 10 opponents to reach 40 points during an 11-game winning streak. Its matchup zone held Benet’s two posts, Furman commit Briggs and Richmond recruit Rifenburg, to a combined 12 points.
Should the two teams meet a third time, it would be in a supersectional at Lyons.
“We knew we couldn’t stop everything, they’re going to make a couple threes,” Stritzel said. “We can’t let threes and then the inside kids. We really put a focus on stopping the inside kids. We couldn’t let them do to us what they did the first game.”