Crothers leads Benet past Westinghouse

Don't look now, but sophomore Colin Crothers is stepping into the role of major contributor for the Benet boys basketball team.

It's true, he did start as a freshman, but in his second year on varsity, he's already showing signs of being able to take a game over.

Case in point: The Redwings' 63-46 victory Wednesday over a tough Westinghouse squad in the second round of Fenwick's John Malone Memorial Thanksgiving Tournament.

Crothers exploded in the third quarter with 12 points on 5-for-6 shooting from the field. He led the Redwings with 18 points and added 6 rebounds, 2 offensive.

Defensively, he held the Warriors' bigs to virtually nothing. Senior DeAngelo Williams had 2 points, while senior Kyle Williams didn't score.

But that third quarter was crucial. It turned a 28-24 halftime lead into a 48-33 advantage at its conclusion.

"We just tried to throw it in and try to collapse the defense, and if he had it, he'd lay it in and if he didn't, he'd kick it out," said senior guard Jacob Petrovic, who was no slouch on the offensive end with 13 points and a pair of 3-pointers.

For his example, Crothers was quick to deflect praise back to Petrovic and fellow guards like senior Jake Ronneberg, Ben Cooney and Connor Reid.

"It wouldn't have been able to happen without the guards and the team effort," Crothers said. "They were just finding me at the right spot at the right times. Like Jake said, if I could go up with it, I went up, but I was looking to kick it out, too."

Benet put together a 9-0 run midway through the third quarter due to Crothers and Petrovic exclusively. After a pair of layups by the two and a free throw by Petrovic, Crothers took over. He scored on a fastbreak layup at 4:53 and hit a layup on a spin move 49 seconds later.

Crothers wasn't done. He added a layup off his own miss at 3:07 and did another spin-move layup on Williams at 1:54.

"He did a much better job of getting in position and he finished very well during that stretch, but we did a much better job of getting him the ball," Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. "I think what kind of goes unnoticed sometimes is our guards play with poise and they handle the pressure and they are able to deliver him the ball and then he took advantage of it."

For all that third-quarter effort, Westinghouse put together a 6-0 run to start the fourth quarter. The Redwings countered with a 9-0 spurt of their own to put the game away, started by a 3 from the top left by Petrovic at 5:11 and ended by his steal and layup at 2:51.

Crothers wasn't the only Benet post player who proved effective Wednesday. Junior Noah Ferrell added 5 points and 7 rebounds coming off the bench.

Benet shot 51 percent from the field and defensively held the Warriors to just 23 percent.