Benet has fun in win over Fremd

Their matchup was every bit as good as it was expected to be, but Monday night's girls basketball game at the 25th annual McDonald's Shootout was a little bit better for Benet than for Fremd.

In a game pitting two teams that very well could meet again in the Class 4A championship game, the Redwings parlayed a strong second half into a 61-54 victory that they thoroughly enjoyed.

"It's fun to beat up on teams, but it's good to get in a game where you have to test yourself, challenge yourself, execute in the half court as well as full court," said Benet point guard Kathleen Doyle. "It makes you work together as a team, and you have to put together four great quarters to win a game like that."

Fremd led at halftime 37-35, but Benet regained the lead in the third quarter and held it tight. The Redwings also held the Vikings to just 4 second-half field goals.

"It was a possession-by-possession basketball game," Fremd coach Dave Yates said. "We missed a couple of shots we needed to stick in the end, and then they're very good free-throw shooters. To me that's the difference. We had shots around the basket we needed to make. To me we controlled the first half, but then we came out, had a couple of bad possessions, let it swing the other way. I was proud of our kids to fight back. We got that down to a 1-point game."

When it came time to foul Benet (21-1) to stop the clock and reclaim possession of the basketball, the Vikings (16-4) kept finding the wrong Redwing to foul, Emily Eshoo. Despite an uncharacteristically poor shooting game, Eshoo went 8 of 8 at the free-throw line in the final 70 seconds, securing the victory.

"It's really important to make free throws at the end of the game, so she was really clutch for us," Doyle said.

"I have always had confidence in my free-throw abilities, regardless of how the game is going shooting, 3s, driving," said the Bradley-bound Eshoo, who makes about 90 percent of her free throws. "It really doesn't matter if I'm not making my shots inside or outside."

Fremd held Eshoo to 14 points despite all the free throws and Emily Schramek to 13, both below their season averages. But Doyle exceeded her average with 22 points, adding 8 rebounds.

"I looked it up, they haven't been in the 50s but once this year," Yates said of Benet's team scoring. "So defensively we did what we needed to do. We didn't let the tempo get crazy. We did good things. We've got to play better on offense."

Duke-bound Haley Gorecki scored 23 points but was the only Viking to reach double figures.

"Sometimes the ball bounces for you and sometimes it doesn't," Yates said. "And you know what? That's a team that's going to be - I'm going to put the whammy on them - that's a downstate-caliber team."

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