Van Eekeren's big day lifts Benet by Carmel

Tyler Van Eekeren's skill set is unique to his family, and also to his Benet basketball team.

Van Eekeren's two older siblings are volleyball standouts who now play collegiately, Jackson a middle hitter at Hawaii and Ally a setter at Creighton. His mother, Amy, played volleyball at Illinois while his dad Alex did star in basketball at Army.

Van Eekeren is surrounded by capable shooters at Benet, but with his length the 6-foot-5 senior forward committed to Division III Washington University in St. Louis seems at his best creating off the bounce and finishing at the rim.

"When I slash, I'm looking to score, but I'm also looking to dish it out," Van Eekeren said. "It's nice to drive and have some really good shooters to dish it out too."

Van Eekeren and Benet had it all going Saturday.

He scored 21 points, 17 coming in the second half. Benet hit eight 3-pointers, and the Redwings' defense was smothering in a 46-30 East Suburban Catholic Conference win over Carmel.

In the process Benet (6-2, 4-1) bounced back from a tough 42-40 overtime loss Friday on a buzzer-beater at Notre Dame, ranked No. 1 in Class 3A.

"It was a heartbreaker last night," Van Eekeren said. "We really played our butts off, but coming back today the attitude was be mad and use it on defense especially."

Luke Nolan added 9 points and hit three 3-pointers and Sam Hennessy added 8 points with two early 3-pointers and four assists - but Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said the story of the weekend was his team's defense.

"This was a huge weekend for us defensively," Heidkamp said. "We held Notre Dame to 40 points in regulation and a really talented Carmel team that's putting up huge numbers we held to 30 points. All the credit to these kids. They really bought in. If they defend like we are now we have a chance to beat anybody."

Benet led just 16-11 at halftime, but Van Eekeren quickly helped the Redwings gain separation out of the break.

He scored 7 of Benet's 9 points during a 9-0 run out of halftime. In an impressive display of athleticism, Van Eekeren caught a lob, gathered himself, then went up-and-under for a reverse layup. He followed that with a 3-pointer, but most of his scores came off driving layups or cuts to the basket for scores at the rim, where he finishes well with his length.

"Our shooters outside is what helps me out a lot," Van Eekeren said. "I know Luke was being tagged all night. Him being tagged opened up the floor for us and helped me get in the lane a ton."

Van Eekeren also drew the assignment of talented 6-foot-3 Carmel junior Bryce Moore, and helped hold him to 5 points on just 5 shot attempts.

"Carmel is a fantastic team, and Bryce is a fantastic player," Van Eekeren said. "A lot of our defense came from our pack line help side defense we play as a team. It's not just me, it's all five guys."

Asher Jackson led Carmel (4-6, 3-3) with 6 points, all coming in the second half. The Corsairs went scoreless the first 7:31 of the second quarter, and seemed to play passive throughout offensively.

Indicative of their struggles, the Corsairs shot two airballs on 3-point attempts in the second quarter, and had a pass from half-court sail well high and wide of the basket.

"Benet is a good defensive team, and we were never able to get a rhythm going offensively," Carmel coach Zack Ryan said. "I think part of that is we weren't able to get any easy baskets because we couldn't create any turnovers. Being down by six to them is like being down by 12 to other teams. It was just a grind for us."

It was, though, a good way for Benet to wrap up a challenging weekend.

"I think we all came out hungry today," Hennessy said. "Yesterday we were a little disappointed, we thought it was a game we could have won or should have won. It was important today to come out hard, especially defensively."