Benet withstands Naperville North comeback
When Benet most needed the shots to fall, they did.
On a rare off-shooting night for the Redwings, they managed to hold off upset-minded Naperville North 64-56 Tuesday night in the Class 4A Naperville North regional semifinals.
Despite its shooting woes, Benet (22-6) held a 35-20 lead with 5:11 left in the third quarter when Huskies coach Jacquie Discipio called a timeout. The Huskies responded, with guard Zoe Swift scoring the next 7 points and the Huskies outscoring the Redwings 18-5 to finish the period.
“I was foolish enough to believe in the third quarter I thought we were going to win the game,” Discipio said. “I give credit to all these girls. The going was tough, they’re a real good team, but in the third quarter, we were pressing, we were on that run. I mean we had them on their heels. We had the energy, we had the momentum.”
It wasn’t enough to overcome a lackluster first half.
“I feel like if we would’ve played four quarters like that, things would’ve been different,” Discipio said, “but the second half, they came fired up. We played looser. We were running and gunning again.”
The Huskies (13-16) tied the game on the speedy Swift’s layup with 6:26 to play in the game, then took their only lead, 45-44, on Shannon Bushman’s 3-pointer with 4:40 to play.
Sidney Prasse answered almost immediately with a 3-pointer of her own and Danielle Canulli scored a 2 for Benet, which hit enough free throws down the stretch to keep the Huskies at bay.
“We kind of had the first-game jitters and they didn’t because they had a game yesterday,” Benet senior Ashley Veselik said. “We let up a little bit, but we pulled it out in the end.”
“We took some shots in a hurry that normally maybe we would hit,” Benet coach Peter Paul added. “Tonight we weren’t shooting particularly well. As the game got on our free-throw shooting got better.”
Benet made just 19 of 53 shots, but it outrebounded Naperville North 19-12 in the first half and caused 12 Huskies turnovers. That helped Benet take a 30-19 halftime lead.
“A couple of defensive things along the way, a lot of our missed free throws and rebounding, those are the things I feel like will haunt me as I think back on this game,” Discipio said.
Prasse led Benet with 16 points and Nicole Valentine added 14. Veselik and Christen Prasse scored 9 apiece.
Swift led the Huskies with 19 points and Bushman had 15, both scoring in bunches in the second half before fouling out in the final 20 seconds.
Senior Caitlin Knoll added 11 for Naperville North.
Benet plays WW South at 7:30 p.m. Thursday for the regional title.