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Benet dips into bench to finish win vs. Nazareth

Benet was ready to try something a little different.

With his team mired in a funk, coach Joe Kilbride left a pair of substitutes on the court the last several minutes of Wednesday's home East Suburban Catholic Conference girls basketball game against Nazareth.

Senior Lexi Moriarty and freshman Lenee Beaumont helped finish off a 47-37 Benet victory in Lisle.

"Honestly, at some point I thought there's a chance to give some kids time in a situation that I might need them who don't normally finish," Kilbride said.

That kind of depth wore down Nazareth (14-9, 1-1).

"That's the thing with Benet," Roadrunners coach Eddie Stritzel said. "You scout them and normal teams you have eight kids. Here if you do your scouting report you have 12 kids on the line and you confuse the kids at times."

There was no confusion for Moriarty, who will play at the University of Rochester, and Beaumont, who already has a Division I scholarship offer.

"We are a deep team so you always got to be ready. You never know when it's going to be your day to play. It feels good to help contribute to the team at the end," said Moriarty, who scored 6 points. "I feel like we really embrace that second-team mentality of working hard in practice, making our first team better. We're always ready to step up when we need it."

The Redwings (21-2, 3-0) already have benefitted from Beaumont's growth this season and could do so again in an even bigger game.

"I'm getting more comfortable each game. With experience I get more comfortable," she said.

Kilbride hasn't been comfortable with his team's play lately.

"We're in this deep, purple haze of some kind," he said. "I'm not sure why, but we're in a little bit of a funk. I told them, we need to get out of it because it's not ... I'm not exactly sure what's going on."

Still, the Redwings won decisively against a talented Nazareth team.

The lead changed hands four times in the second quarter before Benet took over for good with a 9-0 run. They led 25-17 at halftime, then an Allison Forney 3-pointer to open the third quarter boosted the lead to double digits. The Benet lead hit 16 early in the fourth quarter, then again when Beaumont's 3-pointer made the score 43-27.

Despite their troubles Stritzel sees the Redwings as the favorites to win Class 4A in March.

"They have a lot of size, they have a lot of depth, they're a lot of seniors," he said.

Forney was the only Redwing to score in double digits with 10 points. Kendall Moriarty and Brooke Schramek each had 9 points.

Nazareth got 13 points from Kaylen Evans and 11 from Justina Hernandez.

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