Collectively, Benet takes Montini title
By now everyone knows about Benet Academy's trio of stars, but after an impressive run to the Montini Christmas Tournament title, it's pretty clear that the Redwings are a deep, talented team.
In Tuesday night's 60-42 championship game defeat of previously unbeaten Trinity, the 17-0 Redwings took over the game in the second half with huge contributions from its bench. Sure, point guard Kathleen Doyle had another big game and was named the tourney MVP, but Benet would not have won on Tuesday without its bench and without big production also coming from starters other than the big three of Doyle, Emily Eshoo and Emily Schramek.
The Blazers (12-1), who reached the finals at Montini with impressive wins over Neuqua Valley and Marian Catholic, led 27-24 at the half before the Redwings blitzed them with a 16-5 third-quarter followed by a 20-point fourth quarter.
Benet's full-court press played a big part in the second-half turnaround, and big minutes were turned in by reserves Emma Hlavin and Morgan Thomalla, along with less heralded starter Elise Stout.
"Both teams were tired. I think that was obvious," said Redwings coach Joe Kilbride, whose squad won an emotional battle on Monday against top-seeded Montini. "We spent a lot of energy last night. We were tired I'm sure they were tired."
With Hlavin scoring 8 points and pulling in 7 rebounds and Thomalla tallying 7 of her 9 points in the second half, Benet used its depth to take over in the second half.
"I told then at halftime, this is going to be a grind-it-out game," Kilbride added. "We ended up subbing a little bit, got some fresher legs. Thomalla did a great job and we just got really good contributions from a number of kids who kind of changed the pace and tempo in the third quarter. We got our press going, we got the tempo going and all of a sudden the whole game just kind of changed. It was really an energy thing. They just dug down and found it."
Eshoo did hit a trio of 3-pointers and led all scorers with 15 points, and Doyle had 12 points and 6 steals. But Tuesday's win was a total team effort for the Redwings, who captured the title in their first year of competing at the Montini tourney.
"I think when we got down we actually kind of freaked out a little bit, but we settled down, we ran our offense and we picked up our press at full court," said Hlavin, who helped spark a 16-2 run in the third quarter that turned the game in favor of fourth-seeded Benet. "We got turnovers and we capitalized on our opportunities."
Schramek, who scored 24 points against Montini on Monday, was limited to 2 points on Tuesday but it didn't matter as the Redwings picked up strong play from all nine players who stepped on the court.
"It's really fun," Hlavin said. "We have our big three as we call them but everyone steps up when there's an opportunity. If someone is in foul trouble we step up. We are always supportive of each other and we play for each other."
Stout added 10 points and Thomalla dropped in a 3 in the fourth quarter to help make sure the Blazers could not make much of a run down the stretch.
"In the third quarter we started losing fundamentals and that's what happens when you have a lot of young kids out there," said Trinity coach Eddie Stritzel, who started a pair of freshmen on Tuesday. "We blew some coverages, and then Benet is really good. We didn't do a good enough job on press break and Benet was getting more confident and faster and faster … we got beat at our game."