Benet pushes through for win

Senior Emma Lyne has been spared the virus that has torn through the Benet girls basketball team this week.

"Thank goodness. Knock on wood," she said.

The Redwings needed the energy Lyne mustered coming off the bench, pushing through a lackluster - at least for them - 62-42 East Suburban Catholic Conference victory against visiting Marian Catholic on Wednesday night.

It didn't help that the Redwings were worn down from a tough loss to Rock Island on Saturday, followed by a game against Fenwick on Sunday.

"It was pretty tough," Lyne said. "A lot of us are tired. Some of us are getting sick, so we're trying to push through all that. We worked really hard through all the sickness and the tiredness, so that was good."

Lyne finished with 10 points, 7 of them in the second quarter when the Redwings (9-1, 1-0) pulled away to a double-digit lead. She also grabbed 2 steals in that period.

"It was a good win by 20 points, but we want to work on it," Lyne said. "It wasn't our best win. It wasn't very clean, but we're going to work on rebounding and defense in the halfcourt for sure. We want to get a cleaner win next time."

Benet finally took the lead for good against the young Spartans (2-7, 0-1) when point guard Tsimba Malonga found senior Katie Jaseckas - one of the girls who missed practice this week due to illness - under the basket for an easy lay-in and a 13-12 lead at the first-quarter buzzer.

That basket was part of a 13-0 Benet run, and the Redwings never trailed again.

"Yeah, I was a little frustrated," Benet coach Joe Kilbride said. "They've been sick. We played Saturday, we played Sunday. Four different kids missed practice with this flu that's been going around, so part of it is we haven't been able to practice very hard."

Benet led by 10 at halftime but then missed its first eight shots of the half before Jaseckas put back her own miss with 3:30 left in the third quarter. That set the Redwings back on course, and they led 44-30 going into the final eight minutes. Freshman Brooke Schramek's three-point play with 3:01 to go expanded the lead to 20 points.

"Honestly, we need to do a better job of rebounding," Kilbride said. "We need to do a better job of defending in the halfcourt. And we need to do better shooting the ball. We didn't shoot the ball well Saturday, we didn't shoot it well Sunday. And I think we're a pretty good shooting team, quite honestly."

Malonga led the Redwings with 14 points, Jaseckas had 13 and Schramek added 10 plus 5 rebounds.

"I thought we played well," said Marian Catholic coach Dan Murray. "I thought we played well for a good portion of the first quarter. They didn't shoot the ball particularly well in the first quarter, like they're capable of."

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