Benet tops Carmel for 3rd place in ESCC tournament
Carmel found out the hard way why Kendall Moriarty will be toiling in the Big Ten in coming years.
A Nebraska recruit, Moriarty had impeccable timing in registering a career high in leading Benet to a 54-38 victory over the Corsairs in the third-place game of the East Suburban Catholic Conference girls basketball tournament Saturday evening in Lisle.
Moriarty scorched Carmel with 17 of her game-high 25 points in the opening half.
The senior off-guard was the star of Redwings' first-quarter outburst.
Draining two 3-pointers and converting driving layups with each hand, Moriarty had nearly half of the Redwings' 21 points in the opening quarter.
Benet (12-1) never trailed after Moriarty and Margaret Temple combined for three straight 3-pointers against the Corsairs to open the game.
“We just got all that momentum in the first quarter and carried it throughout the game,” Moriarty said. “We really wanted to get a lead off of them.”
Grace Sullivan scored the first 8 points for Carmel (6-10), but the Redwings countered with more makes than misses in the first quarter.
Benet sophomore guard Lenee Beaumont will in all likelihood be confronted with major scholarship offers in coming years.
Beaumont converted a 3-point play at the first-quarter buzzer to give the Redwings a 21-13 advantage after one.
Temple directed the Benet offense with aplomb, registering 5 assists while scoring all 8 of her points in the first half.
Moriarty was the beneficiary of a Temple assist more than once Saturday evening.
“I owe her a milkshake,” Moriarty deadpanned of Temple.
“To have those nice plays like that was very fun for the team,” Temple said. ”It was our last game. ‘Let's give 100 percent.' That was our mindset.”
Mia Gillis' quarter-opening field goal brought Carmel with 21-15 to start the second, but it was all Benet the remainder of the contest.
The Redwings' Reagan Rodelbostel had her lone field goal to cap an 8-2 Benet third-quarter run that pushed a 10-point halftime lead to 39-23.
Carmel would never see a single-digit deficit again, but the Corsairs have an underclass jewel of their own in Jordan Wood.
In tallying a team-high 20 points, Wood scored 15 of the Corsairs' second-half points.
Anna Hartman had the only other field goal for Carmel after the break; Sullivan scored all 10 of her points before halftime for the Corsairs.
“I was just making sure I can play my best I can for the seniors,” said the sophomore Wood. “I know they wanted to close on Benet. I needed to step up.”
Benet received all of its point production from its five starters. Beaumont complemented Moriarty with 12 points. Morgan Demos added 7 points as the Redwings' post.