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Benet clobbers Nazareth

Benet lived at the free-throw line on Friday.

Starting with two made attempts before the game even started due to a technical foul, the Redwings made 39 trips to the line.

The home team ended up making 28 of those, led by a perfect 12-for-12 performance from Jack Nolan, in a 73-43 East Suburban Catholic Conference boys basketball win over Nazareth in Lisle.

"That was big for us," said Nolan, who finished with a game-high 21 points. "Obviously, they put us to the line; we wanted to take advantage and I thought we did that tonight."

Benet (15-6, 2-3) led 12-5 after the opening eight minutes, thanks in large part to a pair of 3-pointers by Nolan. That advantage swelled to 30-15 by halftime, with Justin Enochs hitting a pair of 3s in the second quarter.

"This is a big win for us," Nolan said. "We needed that win as a team. We've kind of been up and down lately. That was a really important game for us to try to get back on track and to try to keep improving as the season goes along.

"Everyone got in, it's a lot of fun when that happens. Everyone deserves that, they practice so hard. And we have a lot of guys who can contribute."

The Roadrunners got no closer than 12 points after halftime as Liam Lyman scored the first seven points to begin the third quarter for the Redwings. Nolan closed the period with 7 of his own as Benet took a 46-24 lead into the fourth.

"That was a great team win," Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. "Multiple guys played well, that was good to see. People stepped up and we shared the ball well. Overall it was a good night for us."

Lyman finished with 13 points and 8 rebounds, and Colin Crothers, Enochs and Jacob Petrovic each had 6. In all, 14 players entered the scoring column.

"We've had some tough losses," Heidkamp said. "Every game seems like it has gone down to the wire. It's been a while since we've had a game like this. From that standpoint it was nice. We played well enough to play everybody and when they got it, they accounted well for themselves."

Michael Adams topped Nazareth (4-14, 0-5) with 13 points.

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