Benet notches quality win over Stevenson

Not a bad weekend.

A day after notching an East Suburban Catholic Conference road win over Notre Dame, Benet's boys basketball team on Saturday held off Stevenson 63-59 in entertaining nonconference action in Lisle.

The two quality wins vaulted the Redwings past the 20-win mark for the 10th straight season. On its own the victory over the Patriots doubled as the latest playoff prep for Benet.

"It's been a tough time for us the past week," said Benet senior Kendrick Tchoua, who had 22 points and 5 rebounds. "I think this win and (Friday's) win were huge for us. We just came out with intensity and hit them hard."

Matt Ambrose, who led Stevenson (23-4) with 20 points, scored with 4 minutes, 15 seconds left to give the Patriots a 53-50 lead. Benet (21-7) stormed ahead 58-53 with a Trevor Casmere 3-pointer, Colin Crothers' three-point play and Charlie Dollard's steal and bucket.

John Ittounas scored for Stevenson, but Benet closed with 5-of-7 free-throw shooting in the final minute.

"Great sectional-type atmosphere," said Stevenson coach Pat Ambrose. "That's one of the reasons why we play this game - on the road, after the sectional seeding - because we want a great test and they're going to provide it for us. It shows us what we need to continue to work on."

Benet scored the game's first 7 points and led 18-7 after a quarter behind Tchoua's 12 points. Stevenson quickly rallied to a 23-21 lead and took a 41-40 lead to the fourth quarter.

Luke Chieng scored 18 points for Stevenson. Crothers had 14 points and 9 rebounds while Casmere knocked down three 3-pointers and added 13 points.

"It was a good weekend for us," said Benet coach Gene Heidkamp. "We played two really good teams. To be able to get two wins is a credit to our kids. (Stevenson is) an excellent team. It felt like we couldn't stop them at all. We did enough to win the game at the end."

Twitter: @kevin_schmit