Benet can’t escape Hinsdale South
Darien is apparently not a safe place for good girls basketball teams to go on Friday nights.
Benet found out the hard way.
A week after upending Proviso East to win the West Suburban Gold, No. 14 Hinsdale South held off a furious fourth-quarter rally to upset No. 2 Benet 53-47.
“Last time I’m going to play in this gym, it’s nice to get a win,” Hornets senior Uzo Okoro said. “People underestimate us. They can think what they want, but I think we showed we’re the better team.”
Benet, not the biggest team, had no answer for 6-foot center Okoro, one of four Hornets senior starters.
Okoro powered in 19 points with 11 rebounds, missing just one of her nine field-goal attempts. And she stuck back that miss.
Behind Okoro, Andrea McNally and Toni Romiti Hinsdale South (20-6) shot a blistering 60 percent in the first quarter and paraded to the free-throw line 25 times for the game, making 19.
“One of the the things we’ve worked on since Christmas is getting it inside,” Hornets coach Jen Belmonte said. “That was our focus tonight, that we got to get the ball to Uzo.”
Benet (22-6), which had its 18-game win streak snapped Wednesday at Carmel in overtime, was far from its best early.
The Redwings rushed several shots in the first half, and those struggles carried over to the defensive end. Benet found itself down 33-21 by halftime.
Benet switched to a 1-3-1 zone after the break, which seemed to slow Hinsdale down. The Redwings again got limited minutes from 3-point gunner Madeline Eilers, trying to play with a partially torn ACL.
“Without Madeline in there, we have to play better defense,” Benet coach Peter Paul said. “If we’re going to go anywhere or do anything it’s on our defense.”
The deficit grew as big as 39-23 midway through the third after Okoro’s putback, and Hinsdale South appeared on cruise control up 49-35 with 4:36 left to play.
From there quick-strike Benet hit the Hornets with a 3-point barrage. Christen Prasse banked in a 3-pointer and canned another one after a turnover.
After an offensive foul, Prasse came off the screen for a third 3 in a 31-second span, making it 49-44.
Sidney Prasse buried another 3 to cut it to 49-47 with 2:40 left, but it’s as close as it got.
Perhaps, though, a comeback to build on heading into next week’s playoffs.
“If we can bottle up the second half, I think we’ll be happy,” Paul said.
Sidney Prasse scored 21 points and Christen Prasse 16 for Benet, combining for nine 3s.
Romiti scored 13 points and McNally 10 for Hinsdale South. The Hornets, 10-2 since New Year’s, reached the 20-win plateau for the first time since 2007-08 — Brenda Whitesell’s last year.
“We haven’t had a different game plan since Christmas — we’re just doing it better,” Belmonte said. “Benet’s a great team and it’s hard to stop Prasse. We did all we could. She almost brought them back at the end.”