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Benet finishes against Downers Grove South

It's no secret Benet's boys basketball team struggled to close out victories at times during the regular season.

That all changed at the start of the second season.

The Redwings finished strong to hold off Downers Grove South 59-47 in Tuesday's Class 4A Addison Trail regional semifinals.

On the heels of its 15th straight victory, No. 2 Benet (24-4) advances to Friday's regional title game to face Wednesday's winner between No. 7 Naperville Central and No. 10 Glenbard West.

A pair of free throws by Justin Eagins pulled No. 15 Downers South (14-16) within 46-45 with three minutes, 46 seconds left, but Benet closed the game on a 13-2 run including 11-of-14 free-throw shooting in the final 2:19. David Buh, Will Engels and Jake Ronneberg took turns winning it at the line for the Redwings.

"In the state playoffs anything can happen, and you've seen crazy things happen at the end of games," said Engels, who scored a game-high 21 points. "Tonight I thought we controlled the ball pretty well. Got to the line and just stepped up and knocked down shots with confidence."

A few times Benet looked poised to break it open, but Downers South did a nice job staying close behind the perimeter shooting of Eagins, who hit four 3-pointers and scored 20 points. The Mustangs rallied from 8 points down in the third quarter to tie it at 43 on a Patrick Shaughnessy layup with 4:58 left in the game.

Not much, however, went right for Downers South down the stretch. Key turnovers, missed shots and three straight missed free throws thwarted hopes of an upset.

"There were a couple plays I wish we could have back," said Mustangs coach Kris Olson. "It didn't go our way and they're a good team that can capitalize on it. To their credit they made all their free throws. It's one of those nights where they definitely deserved it."

Buh scored 15 points for Benet, which committed only 6 turnovers. Shaughnessy scored 10 points for Downers South.

"They weren't going to go away," said Benet coach Gene Heidkamp. "It took us the entire game to finally get to solidify it down the stretch. I give credit to our guys for staying with it and pulling it out at the end."

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