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Benet steps back to beat York

At Batavia's 24th Jim & Sylvia Roberts Night of Hoops on Saturday, York's zone defenses reduced Benet's usual backdoor cuts, ball screens and inside looks.

Oh well.

Behind alert passing and ball rotation Benet's Jack Nolan and Liam Lyman paced a perimeter assault of 11 3-point baskets. Add 18 York turnovers and Benet beat the Dukes 48-39, though the Redwings led by 17 with 1:55 left in the game when Benet coach Gene Heidkamp and York's Vince Doran made their final substitutions.

"It doesn't really matter what kind of defense we play against, we just know we have to take advantage of what the defense is giving us," said Nolan, the senior guard who made five 3s, scored a game-high 17 points and grabbed 4 steals and 7 rebounds.

Senior forward Lyman added three 3s, 12 points and 9 boards. Matt Teglia, Justin Enochs and Jacob Petrovic also laced it from the arc.

"Against this particular defense we knew we had to move the ball around and get it inside the zone and get it back outside the zone. I thought we did that pretty well today," Nolan said.

Benet (16-6) turned up the defense after York (10-12) tied the score 11-11 early in the second quarter on two Nick Trapani free throws. Over the last five minutes of the first half, the Redwings forced 6 turnovers and ended the half on a 13-2 run for a 24-12 lead. Ryan Liszka, Teglia and Lyman each took offensive charges in the second quarter.

"We did a little bit better job of pressuring the ball," Heidkamp said. "We knew we weren't going to be able to do that forever, we knew that would change a little bit. But I thought those defensive stops and some in the third quarter were really what allowed us to make a little bit of a run and get a little bit of a cushion."

Lyman opened the third-quarter scoring with a 3 and Nolan sank 3 in his first four shots. Freshman center Colin Crothers scored twice inside as Benet led 40-18 with 1:08 left in the third quarter.

"I thought we were going to be able to ride our momentum out because we were really happy last night, because it was a big win (over Glenbard West)," said York junior Nate Lyons. "So I thought we were going to have the momentum coming into today, but it just didn't work out that way."

Held to 14-of-34 shooting, sophomores Erik Cohn and Sam Walsh led the Dukes with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Doran called it Walsh's best game; the 6-foot-3 forward grabbed 9 rebounds.

"We had 13 turnovers in the first half and we need to get better handling the basketball, and if we do that we're going to be pretty good. If we don't, we're going to struggle," Doran said.

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