Benet refuses to let first loss keep it down

There was no way Benet was going to lose two girls basketball games in a row this weekend.

A day after its first loss of the season, Benet cruised to an easy victory against a strong Hinsdale Central squad, 83-60 Sunday afternoon at Fremd's Chicagoland Invitational Showcase.

"It was huge," senior guard Morgan Thomalla said. "We were a little down on ourselves yesterday. We know (Joliet Catholic) is a great team, but we didn't want to have two losses in two days. It would have been disappointing going into finals week."

Benet did not disappoint, playing with a clear determination from the opening tipoff. The Red Devils (11-5), playing their third game in three days, hung around for a while, with the teams exchanging the lead four times early. By the end of the first quarter, however, Benet (19-1) led 27-17. At halftime it was 49-29.

"Defensively, I thought we were both going to get 100 the way it was coming up and down," Benet coach Joe Kilbride said. "We weren't getting stops. Once we started getting some stops we were able to get a bit of a cushion."

"I think we did a nice job overall handling their pressure and not really turning the ball over too much, but they just execute everything so well," Red Devils coach Tom McKenna added. "I'm serious. That's what we want to be when we grow up."

The Redwings made 18 of 35 shots for the first half, including six 3-pointers. For the game seven Redwings combined to make a dozen 3-point shots.

"It's just tough to stay with them when they have so many girls who can score just from everywhere," said Gabrielle Rush, Hinsdale Central's Princeton-bound senior. "It's so frustrating because you think you're getting out on all their shooters, but then there's another girl who you know can hit consistently. That's a credit to them by having so many weapons. I feel like we were keeping up with them at the beginning, but once we stopped converting every time and they continued to hit 3 after 3 after 3, that's when we fell behind."

The onslaught continued even when Kilbride called on his bench. Benet got 25 points from its reserves, Thomalla leading the way by making three of her five 3-point shots.

"I told Joe I'm surprised there were any lights left because they shot the lights out," McKenna joked. "We couldn't keep up with them. I thought we could, but not the way they shot tonight."

"We shoot the ball well, honestly, and today we just had more people than usual taking shots," Kilbride added. "But we do have, across the board, it's a pretty good shooting group. Today we kind of had it going. It's always easier to shoot when you're up by 10 than when you're down by 10."

Rush led all scorers with 30 points, adding 13 rebounds. Emily Schramek led Benet with 18 points, Emily Eshoo had 17 and Kathleen Doyle 12 points.

"They were disappointed in yesterday," Kilbride said. "It's a good thing when they demonstrate the kind of resilience to come back from that, show up the next morning and go to work. I thought they did a really good job of that today."

Fenwick 47, WW South 43:

In its Showcase game on Sunday, Wheaton Warrenville South fell to Fenwick 47-43, outscoring the Friars by 10 in the final quarter.

Senior Olivia Linebarger returned to the lineup after a bout with the flu to score 12 points, and sophomore Sarah Struebing added 10.

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