Benet powers past Marist

Benet knows how it feels to win the Montini Christmas Tournament.

The Redwings also realize just how special it is just to win a game at the state's toughest girls basketball holiday tournament.

The defending tournament champion advanced to the semifinals again, this time defeating East Suburban Catholic Conference rival Marist 59-44 Monday night in Lombard.

"I'm really excited. It's awesome," Redwings senior guard Sami Valentine said. "We'll see how tomorrow goes, but hopefully we'll bring home a win."

Tuesday will bring an even tougher test than Monday: the 8:15 p.m. semifinal against powerful Whitney Young.

"My goal coming in here is to get to the final four," Benet coach Joe Kilbride said. "If we can get through the first two rounds and get to the final four of this tourament, you're doing something.

"Look at who's there, and look at who's not. There are some really good teams who aren't in that final four in this tournament. I'm pleased with it. We're going to get two games against really good competition here at Christmas to kind of see where we're at. Two teams that, whoever it is, have a really good chance of being down at Redbird. So it's a really good kind of litmus test for us."

"It was a really big game for us, and we were kind of nervous in the beginning," Valentine added. "I think we all came together and we all were really fired up about this game."

It showed. The Redwings (13-1) got out to a 17-7 lead after one quarter. They led by as many as 14 points in the second before Marist cut the lead to 27-20 at halftime, causing some concern among the Redwings.

"We have really good motivation on the team and everyone is each other's biggest fan. We help each other through the hard times," Valentine said.

The Redwings took control for good in the third quarter, outscoring the RedHawks 23-10.

"We just got it going a little bit in the third quarter," Kilbride said. "We held them to 10 and we were able to get some stops which got us into transition. That was the problem the first half, we weren't getting stops."

Nebraska recruit Kathleen Doyle led the Redwings with 22 points. The senior guard also had 5 rebounds 4 assists and 2 steals.

"Kathleen has a really good feel for when do we need her to facilitate, when do we need her be a little more aggressive," Kilbride said. "I think she realizes she's going to have to be aggressive. They're a really good team, a very good team."

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