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Notre Dame gets payback on Benet

Benet's boys basketball team got the one it wanted, but Monday night still stung.

Four days after the Redwings hammered Notre Dame in East Suburban Catholic Conference play, the Dons grabbed some revenge with a 49-46 rematch victory in the Wheaton Warrenville South Martin Luther King Tournament championship game.

Benet (16-3) trailed by 9 points with less than five minutes to play but pulled within 45-44 with 1:28 left on back-to-back Jason Malonga buckets. A missed Dons 3-point attempt gave possession to the Redwings with a chance to take the lead, but the ball went back to Notre Dame on a traveling call.

A pair of Matt Stritzel free throws extended Notre Dame's lead to 47-44, and then a James Dockery basket again made it a 1-point deficit for Benet. Notre Dame's Anthony D'Avanzo added a pair of free throws with 1.6 seconds left to wrap up the title for the Dons (15-4).

"We were getting away from what we usually do," said Dockery, who led Benet with 14 points. "Usually our defense creates our offense, but we were just trying to go straight to the offense and not even care about the stops."

Benet beat Notre Dame 62-45 on Thursday, but Monday's rematch had a completely different feel - partly because it was the teams' fourth game in three days and fifth in five days.

The Redwings opened a 9-point second-quarter lead on two straight Jack Nolan baskets, but Benet's shooting wasn't near as sharp as the first meeting. With tired legs taking hold, Benet made 9 of 22 second-half shots.

"We still were within a point late in the game, as poorly as we played," said Benet coach Gene Heidkamp. "I give them credit for that. Obviously we didn't play well enough to pull it out."

All-tournament selections D'Avanzo and Lucas Simon combined for 25 points for the Dons. Nolan, who scored 10 points, and Dan Sobolewski were all-tournament for Benet.

"We just played hard," D'Avanzo said. "We wanted to get payback, and we got it."

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