Benet shows signs of progress vs. Carmel

Benet didn't bust out of its self-described funk on Wednesday night against visiting Carmel, but the Redwings did show signs of progress.

"Stepping toward out of it. We're not out of it yet, but as a team we're one step closer," Redwings junior Kendall Moriarty said.

Benet remained undefeated in the East Suburban Catholic Conference with a 56-38 girls basketball victory in Lisle.

"I think we're getting out of it, yeah," added Benet coach Joe Kilbride, noting some nagging injuries are healing. "... So I feel we had a couple of little funky windows there. I think we could have put that game to rest earlier than we did."

"I just think that we knew this was a conference game and we had to win if we want to win conference," added Moriarty, whose team hosts Marian Central on Thursday night in another ESCC game. "And we're getting close to the playoffs so we have to kind of get it together and under control. I thought we did a really good job tonight overall, but we did have some instances where we did turn over a couple times. But overall I thought that we still played one of our better games."

Moriarty played one of her better games also. She led the Redwings with 14 points, hitting three 3-pointers.

"Tonight she was very good," Benet coach Joe Kilbride said. "She shot the ball good yesterday, she continued shooting it well today, and honestly she's shot it well all year. She just hasn't shot a huge volume. She's playing offensively under control so much all year compared to last year. There were times she'd get a little over her skis."

The athletic 6-foot Nebraska recruit also showed why Kilbride called her "the best defender in the state."

Benet (22-2, 4-0) never trailed in the game, taking a 22-10 lead midway through the second quarter when senior Kendall Holmes hit a pair of free throws and Moriarty drove the baseline for a lay-in.

The Corsairs (17-7, 3-3) cut the lead to 7, but the Redwings pulled away again in the third quarter.

"I thought our effort was great," Carmel coach Ben Berg said. "Our effort was great. We played hard for all four quarters. When you're playing a team like that you need to take care of the ball a little better. We did in the second half. We didn't quite as well in the first half.

"But you get down three, four possessions and then it becomes hard. And I thought in the fourth we were down 9 and we missed a 3. If we hit that it's 6 and then we're kind of there."

A Brooke Schramek basket midway through the third quarter put the Redwings ahead 38-20. Carmel changed to a 2-3 zone, forced some turnovers and scored 9 straight points, cutting the Benet lead to 9 with an Anahi Gonzalez basket with 1:33 to go in the third.

"We were getting hurt inside a little bit and they were getting too many open looks at the basket," Berg said. "And also we wanted to slow the pace of the game down. They want to get up and down the floor and shoot some 3s, and we needed to kind of shorten the game a little bit. I thought that helped a little bit."

Holmes added 13 points for Benet, and Schramek scored a dozen with 6 rebounds and 2 blocked shots.

Jordan Wood, Carmel's 6-4 freshman, led all scorers with 18 points, adding 8 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.