Benet holds off Joliet West, will return to Peoria
DEKALB - Tuesday's Class 4A Northern Illinois University supersectional game showed what Benet's boys basketball season, and program, is about.
With a 67-59 win over Joliet West at NIU's Convocation Center, it'll continue in Peoria for the second time in three years. The Redwings will play Simeon, a 66-36 supersectional winner over East Moline United, in a Class 4A semifinal at 8:15 p.m. Friday.
"This is why you play high school basketball, there's nothing better than getting downstate," forward Dan Sobolewski said.
"I think the things that we built our team on - unselfishness, toughness, defense - I thought those things showed up tonight and that's why we have a chance to go downstate. Really proud of these guys," said Benet coach Gene Heidkamp, whose club tied a program victories record improving to 30-3.
Benet required calm to answer Joliet West's initial lead, defense and execution to build a cushion that became necessary when Joliet West (21-10) made its inevitable push.
After falling behind 9-2, and 11-6 after one quarter, Benet landed four players in double figures, guards James Dockery and Jack Nolan scoring 16 apiece, adding Jason Malonga with 13 and Sobolewski with 13 points, 10 rebounds. Justin Enochs was Benet's sole player off the bench guarding one of Joliet West's keys, point guard Teyvion Kirk. Tigers forward Trevian Bell scored 19 points, Kirk 17.
"We started the game off, we just weren't finding the net very well," Dockery said. "They were getting whatever they wanted offensively. So once we started to get those stops the offense started to come along and that's when we started to make that run."
A 17-3 run gave the Redwings a 21-14 lead with 3:10 left in the second quarter. The Redwings led the first half 32-23, committing zero turnovers. In Joliet West's 59-53 win over Benet at the Pontiac Holiday Tournament, Benet committed 15 turnovers.
"We didn't really think of it as a revenge game, they were just in the way of where we wanted to go," Malonga said.
With Liam Lyman catching fire for his 8 points in the third quarter, Benet entered the fourth leading 54-39 and enjoyed its largest lead, 56-41, on a Sobolewski inside basket at 7:21 of the fourth.
Then came the Tigers. Applying a full-court press Joliet West went on a 14-4 run to close within 60-55 with 1:57 left in the game. Mike Smith came up with 3 straight steals during the Tigers run.
"That's Joliet West basketball," said coach Nick DiForti. "We turn up the defense and force the other teams to turn it over. We felt more comfortable both offensively and defensively at that point."
"I thought we had to really close the deal, especially when they came back there in the fourth quarter with that pressure," Nolan said. "But I thought we stayed poised, kept our composure even thought they made that run."
The Redwings were finally able to spread the floor until Sobolewski drove the baseline for a basket. That seemed to break the spell, and Nolan, Dockery and Sobolewski sealed it from the foul line in the last 1:07.
"I thought we played really well through the course of the game and the cushion that we were able build up was the difference in the game," Heidkamp said. "Having been in these situations before I think our experience really helped us down the stretch. We were able to make enough plays in the last minute and a half to pull the game out."