Want to know the best way about combating a zone defense?
Look at the way Benet attacked Schaumburg from the jump on Saturday afternoon at Wheaton Warrenville South’s MLK Tournament.
Thanks to hitting on seven three-pointers collectively, Benet led wire-to-wire on its way to earning a 46-34 victory over Schaumburg.
On the heels of a 16-point night on Thursday in a win over Notre Dame, Nolan picked up where teammate Liam Lyman left off.
Much like Lyman did two days earlier against the Dons, Nolan connected on five three-pointers to highlight a game-high 18-point effort to send the Redwings (14-2) to an 8:30 p.m. date with Waukegan (9-8).
Benet rides a five-game winning streak into its Saturday night date with Waukegan and has won seven of its last eight games dating back to a 59-53 loss to Joliet West at Pontiac.
“I think my teammates just found me in the right spots, so I just shot them in the flow of the offense,” Nolan said. “Thought we really attacked the zone well in the first and second quarters and I just knocked down open shots.”
Nolan got things off and running against the Saxons courtesy of three straight three-pointers to open up the scoring for Benet.
After Danny Sobolewski hit on a three-pointer of his own with 4:22 left in the first quarter, Benet had raced out to a 12-4 lead.
Benet’s first six field goals were all three-pointers, thanks to Nolan and Sobolewski. Its first two-point basket came from Lyman with 4:50 to play in the third.
“They opened up in a 2-3 zone and we’re pretty comfortable playing against zone,” Sobolewski said. “Last year, we didn’t shoot it as well and it was a little bit more of a problem when (teams) played zone. But, this year, when they’re in a zone, we’re very comfortable. We were getting it inside and out., playing how we want to play. We hit some open shots.”
Sobolewski had eight of his 13 points in the second half to join Nolan in double figures while the duo did their best to counter the Saxons’ Kameron Powell.
Powell scored 11 points in the first half as the Redwings went into halftime up nine at 24-15 but was limited to just three points the rest of the way.
Heidkamp gave all the credit to Sobolewski.
“Put Danny on (Powell) in the second half and Danny did a little bit better job of trying to keep (Powell) in front of him,” Heidkamp said.
