On the night Benet paid homage to its past, it served honor to its present.
Taking the floor Friday at old Alumni Gym for the first time in six years, the script for Benet didn’t change much.
Much like it has done for the majority of the year, Benet spread the wealth as it survived a late Marian Central Catholic push to earn a 56-48 victory.
Four Redwings had at least nine points – with James Dockery and Jason Malonga leading the way with 20 and 16 points, respectively.
Behind Dockery and Malonga, the Redwings jumped on the Hurricanes early to the tune of a 14-2 lead with just over a minute left in the first quarter.
That bulge eventually found its way to as big as 18 points following a Dockery bucket to open the second half as the Redwings got a combined 23 points from Dockery and Malonga in the first half.
“It was exciting,” Malonga said of the chance to play in Alumni Gym, where Benet won a state record 102 straight games from 1975 to 1987. “It was really exciting, with the throwback uniforms. It was really cool to do that. Do something different for a change. Just a really, really good game and a really, really exciting game.”
Benet (24-3, 7-1) kept pace in the East Suburban Catholic Conference race with Marian Catholic and will have a chance to clinch a piece of the title Wednesday against Carmel.
For senior Danny Sobolewski, that means everything.
“It’s really special,” said Sobolewski, who added nine points – along with Jack Nolan. “At the beginning of the year, everybody thought this conference was going to be a two-team race. Nobody talked about us, even a chance to win conference. So I think we showed a lot of people that we’re better than people thought.
“It’s going to be my first chance at a conference championship, which is pretty special. It’s something I’ve wanted for three years and I have one shot at it. We’ve got to win Wednesday night, though.”
Thanks to the exploits of Hurricanes’ Adam Pischke, that opportunity for a shot at a conference title almost disappeared.
After the Redwings took their biggest lead of the night at 32-14 early in the third, the Hurricanes responded by rattling off a 24-6 run to cut their deficit to 38-34 with 1:57 left in the third.
Pischke had a game-high 26 for Marian Central Catholic (15-8, 3-5) while Thomas Kaufmann added 14.
“We knew that it was going to be a game down the (stretch),” Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. “Pischke’s one of the best players in the league. I think he’s the second-leading scorer in the league and they beat us last year. So that wasn’t unexpected. We knew that there would be a game.
“We wish we would have played a little bit better defensively, but I give them a lot of credit. They kept coming. They made some shots down the stretch. Guys who weren’t making shots in the first half stepped up and made some shots and they got a little confidence and a little momentum.
“We knew it would be a game down the stretch. Luckily, we made enough plays where we had the game down the stretch.”
Undeterred and showing the mettle evident of a top seed in a sectional, the Redwings countered the Hurricanes with one last push.
An 11-0 run following a Benet timeout pushed the lead back up to 14 at 49-34 early in the fourth – a run that saw Dockery and Malonga combine for nine of the 11 points.
From there, a late flurry from Pischke late got the Hurricanes as close as five points following a triple with 19 seconds left.
“It was a great environment,” Malonga said of the packed house inside Alumni Gym. “This game – we’ve known for about a week now – was a really big game. It was a really good atmosphere. We were excited since Monday to play in this old gym. Has great significance and great tradition. So we were happy to get the win out here in front of our home crowd.”
[shareprints gallery_id=”54874″ gallery_type=”squares” gallery_position=”pos_center” gallery_width=”width_100″ image_size=”small” image_padding=”2″ theme=”dark” image_hover=”false” lightbox_type=”slide” comments=”false” sharing=”true”]PURCHASE PHOTOS FROM THIS GALLERY
