Given all the personnel losses Benet suffered in the midst of losing four starters from its 25-win team from last year, which finished second in Class 4A, some questions and answers still to be found awaited Benet this season.
Learning to play differently offensively without the services of Xavier freshman big man Sean O’Mara, the program’s all-time leading scorer while also showing the defensive tenacity and intensity the Redwings have been known for, their 9-3 start this season probably has surprised some observers.
After opening up the year with losses to Neuqua Valley and Naperville Central in the Hoops for Healing Tournament, the Redwings rattled off seven straight victories before falling to one-loss Simeon in the title game of the Pontiac Holiday Tournament.
The play of Redwings’ senior Colin Bonnett, the lone returning senior from last year’s Class 4A runner-up, is one big reason why the Redwings have been able to get on track.
On his way towards earning A.C. Williamson Award honors after averaging 12 points during the Redwings’ four games at Pontiac against the likes of Bloom, Curie, St. Charles North and Simeon, Bonnett continued to lead the way.
Bonnett’s combined 35 points in Benet’s victories over Curie and St. Charles North were highlighted by hitting on four three-pointers apiece in both games.
All told, Bonnett converted 11 of his 23 three-point attempts during the three-day tournament.
“He played very well. The best part of his game was that he played in all facets,” Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. “He defended really well. He handled the ball for us and he scored when we needed him to score and he created shots for others. So I thought his body of work through the course of the tournament was very, very solid and I think it was something good to see that he’s playing well on both ends of the floor and we really needed that, obviously, against the level of competition that we played.”
Benet’s performance this past week in the Pontiac Holiday Tournament after spending numerous years over the holiday break at the prestigious Proviso West Tournament, several observers believe another run to Peoria is possible.
With about two months to go until the start of the state tournament, Heidkamp isn’t going that far yet.
“I’m not surprised that we played well (at Pontiac). I think we have the makings of being a pretty good team,” he said. “But we have a long way to go to be a team that’s where we want to be. There’s a lot of room for improvements. We’ve got a lot of areas of our game that have to get better, so that talk (of possibly getting back to Peoria) is way too premature. We’ve played well. We have been playing well. We played well pretty much all December. But I think we’ve got a lot of room for improvement.”
In the Redwings’ last eight games after their 2-2 start, the defense has picked up considerably to the levels people have come to expect.
Naperville Central is the last Redwing opponent to reach the 50-point mark, which it did in a 56-51 overtime victory to claim third place in the Hoops for Healing Tournament.
Since losing to the Redhawks back on Nov. 28, Benet has permitted opponents to an average of 37.6 points a game, with Simeon’s 46 points on New Year’s Eve being the high.
Five of those eight opponents didn’t even break 40 points against the Redwings’ staunch defense as they have definitely got more cohesive and comfortable with one another as the year as gone on.
A two-week break between the loss to Naperville Central in November and a 29-point victory over Joliet Catholic on Dec. 12 to open up its East Suburban Catholic Conference play might turn out to be the impetus that got Benet going to whatever future the remainder of its season holds.
It’s a fact not lost on the Redwings’ seventh-year head coach.
“Well, I don’t think there’s any doubt about it. I think that that two-week layoff was what we needed. It was tough to go without a game. It’s tough to practice, but basically the length of time between the start of the season and playing your first game,” Heidkamp said. “So we had another preseason in itself after we played those four games. We knew more about our team and we knew what we were decent at and we knew what we had to get a lot better with. From that point on, we’ve played defense the way that we like to play defense. We’ve competed real well and we know that’s going to be the backbone of what we do. If we don’t defend well, we’re not going to be a very good team.”
Benet opens up the 2015 portion of its schedule at home on Jan. 10 against Fenwick.
