Benet suffers first loss on Lake Forest buzzer-beater
Benet rejected Molly Fisher once. The Redwings couldn't stop the Lake Forest junior's second try.
Lake Forest upset nationally ranked Benet 45-44 in the Montini Christmas Tournament girls basketball semifinals Saturday night in Lombard on Fisher's buzzer-beating 10-foot heave from the left side.
"It was a good shot and props to her for knocking it down," Benet junior guard Ashley Berry said.
"Sometimes the ball's gotta bounce your way. I'm just really happy it bounced our way today," Scouts coach Kyle Wilhelm added.
In a second half that featured 7 lead changes and 4 ties, No. 1-seeded Benet (14-1) took the lead with 5.6 seconds to go on a Brooke Schramek lay-in off a Kendall Holmes assist.
Having the length of the court to go, fifth-seeded Lake Forest inbounded to senior Halle Douglass, a Wisconsin recruit. Douglass lost control of the ball near midcourt but somehow got it to Fisher near the corner.
Schramek blocked Fisher's first shot attempt but not her second. It swished through the net for the Lake Forest (13-2) win.
"It looked like a good block, I guess," Wilhelm said. "That was not what we drew up, I'll tell you that. They did a good job defending it. It was just one of those plays, the ball ended up in Molly's hands and she, fortunate for us, made it. You want to be in those kinds of situations, though. That's a great thing that Molly will never forget."
Benet will try to remember it also and use it as motivation the rest of the season.
"I was guarding the ball and then I blocked it and then she caught it again and we were both holding it, so I thought they were going to call a jump," Schramek added. "And then she pushed me, I fell and then she chucked it. So I was on the floor when it happened."
Lake Forest led nearly the entire first half, when Benet made just 4 of 23 shots. The Scouts took a 20-13 lead into halftime.
"That's not like us at all," Schramek said of the low-scoring half. "And we easily could have gone into halftime feeling bad for ourselves and being like, oh, we're not making anything, let's just give up."
Instead they fought back, taking the lead back with a 10-1 run to start the third quarter.
Benet took a 41-36 lead on a Holmes 3-pointer with 3:17 left. The Redwings seemed to have the momentum to remain unbeaten.
"We did," Benet coach Joe Kilbride said. "We were trying to kind of take a little air out of it. I think we missed a layup and had one turnover. I can't remember, but I felt the same way. I felt pretty good up 5 with three to go. Multiple timeouts, the arrow. But they made plays. We made a couple of mistakes when it counted."
Douglass finished with 18 points on 9-of-10 free-throw shooting. Fisher scored 8, five of them in the final 2:03. The Scouts will meet No. 2 Evanston in the final Monday night.
Holmes led Benet with 15 points and Schramek added 14. Benet will play No. 3 Montini in the third-place game Monday night.
"The kid made a play," Kilbride said. "You've got to give them credit. Halle's a very good player, and they're a tough matchup on a one-day turn because of the matchup zone they play. That's kind of unusual. It's a hard thing to get your kids ready to attack when all you've got is a walk through. We haven't seen that this year. They did a nice job."