Prasse, Benet taste tournament title

Benet coach Joe Kilbride wants to see senior point guard Clara Prasse eating a protein bar on the bench more often this season.

"She was hungry today. ... I told her I'm going to make her play hungry every game from now on," Kilbride said jokingly.

"I thought she was great today. She was really the difference. And I told her before the game, 'We want to play fast but we don't want to be in a hurry. And you've got to control that. You can't let us be in a hurry.' I thought she did a great job of that."

With a hungry Prasse quarterbacking the Redwings, they ate up Homewood-Flossmoor for a 41-25 victory in the championship game of the Tip-Off Tournament at Naperville Central. Benet led from start to finish, though H-F kept it close in the first half.

Prasse led Benet (6-0) with 12 points, and Ashley Konkle added 10 points and grabbed 5 rebounds and blocked 3 shots. Grace Hall's 8 points led the Vikings.

It helped that Prasse was at full strength.

"She's been having some foot problems and she just got it resolved, so yesterday and today are the first times really this season that she's been pain free, and I think that helped quite a bit," Kilbride said.

Benet won its second consecutive Tip-Off title.

"It was one of our goals starting out," Prasse said. "We always say we want to win all of our tournaments, so this is definitely (important). H-F is a good team and it really tested us. And I think we really played well. The teamwork was there, the effort was there."

The Redwings' defense earned a box of protein bars for its role in the victory. Holding a good team like the Vikings to such a low point total on 11-of-35 shooting is an impressive feat.

"It's about time," Kilbride said. "For whatever reason we've been winning games, but I haven't been entirely enthusiastic about our defensive effort and I thought today was better."

It's notable that the Redwings won without a boost from the 3-point shot, making just 1 of 11 from long range.

"Pretty much all of us can shoot 3s," Prasse said, "but Coach has been stressing our need to get to the basket more, so I think we definitely improved on that this game."

Actually, the lone 3-pointer did give the Redwings (6-0) a lift coming out of halftime, when Benet led 23-19.

"Then we just got the momentum and we kept building on that," Prasse said.

Junior Brooke Schramek's shot got Benet started on a 14-2 third quarter, and the Vikings (5-2) never threatened the Redwings again. The Benet lead peaked at 18 points in the fourth quarter.

"The second half I thought - third quarter in particular - I thought we really kind of calmed down," Kilbride said. "We ended up winning the turnover battle and the rebound battle, which is sort of the whole goal."