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Friday, March 29, 2024

Benet Stays Alive in ESCC Race Courtesy of 64-41 Victory Over Nazareth

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James Dockery grabs a rebound for Benet as teammate Cameron Graves watches during Benet's 64-41 victory over Nazareth on Feb. 13, 2015.
James Dockery grabs a rebound for Benet as teammate Cameron Graves watches during Benet’s 64-41 victory over Nazareth on Feb. 13, 2015.

With the regular season winding down, Benet took the floor Friday night opposite Nazareth looking to keep the momentum gleaned from winning seven straight games.

Nearly leading wire-to-wire, Benet didn’t let up in keeping its East Suburban Catholic Conference hopes alive amidst posting a 64-41 victory over Nazareth in Lisle to run its winning streak to eight games.

Benet cruised behind balanced scoring on the offensive end of the floor as four guys scored at least six points, with James Dockery and Cameron Graves both finishing in double figures.

Dockery’s team-high 15 points was followed right behind by Graves’ 14 while Danny Soboloewski and Colin Bonnett chipped in nine and six points, respectively.

“It was definitely balance (Friday) night. That was a point of emphasis,” Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. “I thought we shared the ball pretty well and we relied on each other. I thought (Nazareth) played really good defense and they caused us some problems and we didn’t the ball as well as we would like to early on. But I thought, especially down the stretch of the game, I thought we made some good decisions with the ball. At the start of the fourth quarter, we started to pick up a little bit and play a little bit better offensively.”

A 16-6 run to end the first quarter turned a two-point lead for the Roadrunners into an eight-point Redwings’ lead heading into the second quarter.

Four different Redwings—Dockery, Graves, Sean Gerken and Jeff Conrad—converted on three-pointers during the first quarter to help gain some traction.

From there, Benet (19-6, 6-1) kept the pressure on offensively as its halftime lead of 30-16 grew to as big as 26 points with under a minute left in regulation.

All told, the Redwings hit on eight three-pointers as Dockery and Graves combined for five of them.

“We like to shoot the threes. Obviously, we don’t have the size as we usually do in past history, but we shoot threes because we go inside-out a lot,” Graves said. “We’ll drive, we’ll get the slips and if it’s not open for a layup, we’re a team that’s unselfish. We’ll get the kick out and we find each other for open threes and we have five people on the court who can shoot threes. So it’s always a pleasure to have that.”

The victory allows Benet to keep pace with Notre Dame in the ESCC race with road games at Marian Central and Carmel left to play.

Sitting one victory away from another 20-win season isn’t a fact the Redwings are taking lightly.

“That really would be (a nice accomplishment for this group). That’s the thing. Twenty wins is a number I think in basketball, high school basketball, it’s pretty special,” Heidkamp said. “For these guys, coming off of last season with a lot of new faces this year, to get to 20 wins I think is a nice accomplishment for this group. So it’s something we’re aware of and hopefully we can get it.  I think it will say a lot for them.

“We’ve also been competitive in the conference. We lost a tough game to Notre Dame, which has proven to be very good, on their home floor. We lost it in the last minute or so of the game. We’ve played pretty well against the rest of the conference and the conference is good this year. So I think this team has got a lot to be proud of and eventhough we’re hoping (for 20 wins), we’re just getting started.”

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Blake Baumgartner
Blake Baumgartner
Raised in Naperville, Blake Baumgartner is a 2001 Naperville Central alumnus and a 2005 graduate of Michigan State's School of Journalism. Since March 2010, he has covered football, boys' basketball and baseball for both The Naperville Sun and Positively Naperville. Follow him on Twitter @BFBaumgartner.

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