All year long, Benet has forced opponents to play at the tempo it has deemed permissible.
With the program’s first sectional title since 2004 at stake on Thursday night, why should it have been any different?
Thanks to blitzing Oswego early and often with a high-paced offensive tempo to go along with a stifling defense, top-seeded Benet laid claim to the Class 4A Oswego East Sectional title by rolling to an 87-60 victory over the third-seeded Panthers.
The 27-point victory over Oswego moves Benet (31-3) into the Class 4A Illinois Wesleyan Super-Sectional on Monday night against Edwardsville, which was a two-point victor over Rock Island.
Already having secured the program’s single-season record for victories with Monday’s triumph over Bolingbrook, the Redwings clearly showed early that they weren’t satisfied.
“Beating Bolingbrook (earlier in the week) was great and breaking the (single-season) record was great, but we’re still not satisfied. We want the full 35 games this year,” said Emily Schramek, who tallied 19 points. “We want to get downstate. So that’s been our goal for a while. So that’s what we’re looking for.”
Getting out to a quick 7-2 lead with less than three minutes having elapsed off the game clock, Benet led by 11 after the first quarter on its way to setting a blistering pace.
By halftime, thanks in large part to the contributions of the Northern Michigan-bound Schramek and Emily Eshoo, the Redwings owned a 16-point lead, an advantage that would eventually grow to 27 points at the game’s conclusion.
After seeing its season end with a loss to Neuqua Valley in a sectional semifinal a year ago, letting the foot off the gas was the furthest thing from the collective minds of Benet’s players.
“We’re actually really used to it by now. In the beginning of the year, it was kind of tough just to play at that speed because not everyone was at that level in the beginning,” said the Bradley-bound Eshoo, who recorded a team-high 24 points. “But just by practicing and every game, to have that goal and play that fast, we really were able to execute well in this game.”
With the Panthers keying on Kathleen Doyle, who was held scoreless in the first quarter and limited to only eight points for the game, Eshoo and Schramek took the lead while the trio of Ema Hlavin, Elise Stout and Morgan Thomalia combined for 23 points.
Hlavin and Stout had nine points apiece for the Redwings, who hit seven three-pointers as a team.
“Honestly, I really thought the kids did a great job of sharing the ball and hunting the best shot, not finding ‘my shot.’ I was very pleased with our offense in that regard,” said first-year Benet coach Joe Kilbride. “And we had a sound game plan. … (The Panthers) are a very good team and they run that ball-screen offense. They do a real good job of it and we prepped it pretty hard. I think we were able to execute what we wanted to do, which I think took them a little bit out of I think some of what they wanted to do in the half-court, which was very good for us.”
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