Benet heads to Proviso West semifinals
After getting its feet wet on Monday, Benet's boys basketball team swam laps around New Trier on Tuesday.
The Redwings struggled little in the quarterfinals of the 50th annual Proviso West Holiday Tournament in Hillside, cruising into the semifinals with a 64-42 victory behind four double-digit scorers.
Having already eclipsed its best Proviso West finish in its 10th appearance, Benet (12-0) seeks its first title game berth in a 6:30 p.m. Wednesday semifinal against Hillcrest (10-2), a 74-66 winner over Morton.
“We certainly were not looking past (New Trier) by any means because we know how good they are,” said Redwings coach Gene Heidkamp. “I was proud of the way our guys adjusted to the game, and I thought we played pretty well.”
Benet especially adjusted well against the mixing defenses New Trier (6-6) threw its way, including a triangle-and-two.
While point guard Dave Sobolewski scored a game-high 18 points, backcourt mate Matt Parisi devastated the Trevians with five 3-pointers. Four came in the middle quarters. The final one — in the midst of a 15-1 third-quarter run — pushed the Redwings' lead to 49-25.
“I was just fortunate to spot up and my teammates did a great job finding me,” said Parisi, who finished with 15 points. “We started out slow the first couple of minutes, but then we picked it up right away. We just played strong the whole game.”
While New Trier struggle through 30 percent shooting from the field, including 4-of-16 3-point shooting, Benet shot 52 percent from the field. Sophomore Pat McInerney, in addition to drawing a tough defensive assignment in Trevians forward Connor Boehm, made 6 of 7 shots while scoring 12 points.
A two-minute 8-0 run in the middle of the fourth quarter, started by a McInerney bucket, gave Benet its biggest lead of 61-35.
Frank Kaminsky had 14 points and 9 rebounds for Benet while Boehm scored 17 points and pulled down 11 boards for New Trier, which faces Morton on Wednesday in the fifth-place bracket.
“We had a good plan coming into the game, so we were prepared,” McInerney said. “We played better today. Hopefully on Thursday we're playing in the championship game and we're at the top of our game then.”