Benet wins despite late St. Viator rally
St. Viator coach Quin Hayes liked how his team played in the final two minutes against Benet on Wednesday.
But Benet boss Gene Heidkamp loved what he saw over the previous 30.
Kendrick Tchoua tallied 19 points and Colin Crothers added 18 as host Benet held off a furious rally to beat the Lions 62-57 in Lisle. The Redwings thus denied St. Viator the East Suburban Catholic Conference boys basketball championship.
Marian Catholic won the league crown with an 8-1 record, while Benet and St. Viator both finished at 7-2.
"Winning against St. Viator was pretty big," Tchoua said. "We've been planning on them for a about a week, so that win did a lot for us."
Benet missed four straight free throws. Kent State commit Jeremiah Hernandez then sank two free throws to pull St. Viator (23-6), which had trailed 58-44, to within 58-55 with 41.3 seconds remaining.
Benet's Trevor Casmere missed two more free throws with 23.6 seconds remaining, but Tchoua rebounded the second miss and drew the fifth foul on Hernandez.
This time Tchoua made both free throws. He then rebounded a missed 3-pointer by Trayvon Calvin, which led to Matt Reid sinking a pair of foul shots with 5.2 seconds left to make it 62-55.
"After I missed my first two, it was nerve-wracking," Tchoua said. "At the end I just fed off my teammates. My teammates fed off of me."
That was the difference. Hernandez and Wright State-bound Trayvon Calvin each scored 21 and Michael Campagna added 10 points, but the other Lions combined for just 5 points.
Tchoua and Crothers, who combined to make 9 of 10 shots in the second half and grab 9 rebounds apiece, had more help. Casmere, Charlie Dollard, Bennett Hickey, Matt Reid and Liam Tomshack all drained 3-pointers to keep St. Viator's defense honest.
"I knew that St. Viator would try taking charges on me because I'm known for attacking the basket all the time," said Tchoua, who sat out the last 11 minutes of the first half after picking up two early fouls. "So I attacked the paint and passed the ball off."
That helped the Redwings (22-7) build a 14-point lead before three turnovers and the missed free throws allowed the Lions to go on an 11-0 run.
"That's part of who we are as a team," Heidkamp said. "We struggle from the free-throw line and we turn the ball over down the stretch of games. Those are two Achilles' heels.
"But I thought the story of the game was how well we played until the last minute.
"The last minute-and-a-half gets attention because Viator closed the lead on us, but from our mindset, we played very well for 30 minutes."
That was especially true defensively. Benet allowed 9 points in the second quarter to take a 27-21 lead.
"Prior to the last minute I thought our defense was really solid and I think it's been getting better the last few weeks and I thought it showed tonight," Heidkamp said. "When you get a good win against an excellent team like St. Viator, it's a good sign going into the state tournament."
St. Viator was attempting to win back-to-back ESCC crowns for the first time but is still confident going into the playoffs.
"We did not play well today," St. Viator coach Quin Hayes said. "They dictated the tempo and controlled the game on both ends of the floor, so credit to them.
"But I'm proud of our fight. Any time you can be humbled I think it's great. It's an opportunity for us to teach and an opportunity for them to learn from this game, try to cover up any shortcomings that we had."