A special game for Benet's Gerken
The Benet boys basketball team's senior night is Saturday night, but Friday's home game against Nazareth still had extra importance to senior reserve Sean Gerken.
The 6-foot-5 Gerken lives in Western Springs and attended St. John of the Cross, a feeder school for the East Suburban Catholic Conference high school in nearby LaGrange Park.
“I know a couple of the guys on the team, so it's a little fun to win the rivalry, get a little bragging rights,” Gerken said. “(But) it's just like any other game, really — a conference game, just hoping to win and help the team out.”
Gerken did his part as the Redwings won their eighth in a row 64-41 victory in Lisle. The victory keeps Benet (19-6, 6-1) in second place in the conference race, one game behind Notre Dame with two left. The Dons (7-0) play Marist (5-2) Feb. 20 in Niles.
Gerken's only basket provided early momentum. He netted the fourth of the Redwings' five 3-pointers in the first quarter to help reverse a 5-3 deficit into a 19-11 advantage by the end of the period.
“Usually I don't shoot (the 3) because I'm usually in the post, but on the perimeter I can shoot a little bit and I hit my first one,” Gerken said. “We were hitting our jump shots and that kind of brought some energy and then on the defensive end we were getting some stops.”
Benet senior Cameron Graves and junior James Dockery each had three 3s, followed by Dan Sobolewski and Colin Bonnett.
The Redwings combined a greater inside presence with some sharp passing in the second quarter to build a 30-16 halftime lead and remained ahead by double digits the rest of the way.
Graves led a balanced first-half attack with 8 points and two first-quarter 3s. Benet finished with eight 3s for the game.
“Obviously we don't have the size like past history, but we shoot 3s because we go inside-out a lot,” Graves said. “We'll get the slips and if it's not open for the layup, we're unselfish so we'll get the kick out. We have five people on the court that can shoots 3s. It's always a pleasure to have that.”
Defensively, Benet limited to Nazareth (4-19, 0-7) to 11-for-37 shooting with four 3s and dominated 40-17 in rebounds, surrendering just 2 offensive boards.
If not for an uncontested 3 at the buzzer, the Redwings would have held an opponent to fewer than 40 points for the third game in a row and seventh time this season.
“We played pretty well defensively. I think that's really been the key for really the run that we're on right now,” Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said.
“(Our offense) was definitely balanced tonight. That was a point of emphasis. We shared the ball pretty well. I thought they played really good defense. Especially down the stretch we made some good decisions with the ball.”
Benet's usual nine-man rotation consists of five seniors and four juniors. Friday's victory proceeded the girls team's senior night victory over Nazareth. Saturday's game is nonconference against Hoffman Estates.
“That'll be exciting. Tomorrow will be fun,” Gerken said. “We had a big crowd (Friday) so that was nice. That was probably our biggest this year.”
Junior Christian Davis had 18 points for Nazareth had 15 of Nazareth's first 23 points and 18 for the game. The Roadrunners also started two freshmen and one sophomore and senior.
“This is the youngest team I've ever had in my 30-something years of coaching,” Nazareth coach John Bonk said. “I thought we defended pretty well. We've had a tough time scoring all year. We're so young.”