Kathleen Doyle has the full confidence in her teammates that they’ll pick her up when the shots aren’t falling.
But for the Nebraska-bound Doyle, Thursday’s opportunity against Oswego East in the Class 4A Benet Sectional Final provided one last chance to play in St. Ronald’s Gymnasium.
With an aggressiveness suited for a future Big Ten point guard, Doyle didn’t disappoint in her final home game in tying her career high of 31 points in top-seeded Benet’s 68-60 victory over second-seeded Oswego East.
On her way to tying that career-high of 31, Doyle sent the Redwings to a Monday date with Edwardsville in the Class 4A Illinois Wesleyan Super-Sectional by attempting 23 free throws – making 15.
“I think I was just playing a little bit better offensively,” said Doyle, who scored just 11 points on Monday against Neuqua Valley. “I was sort of in a funk, but my teammates picked me up on Monday and it didn’t matter. And they had faith in me (Thursday) to bounce back. So I don’t know. I guess it was just kind of my night.”
The Redwings (29-3) won their 12th straight game by not taking the bait from the Wolves (27-3) early on.
Junior Sydney Schultz scored Oswego East’s first six points as it tried to turn the tempo into a physical, half-court type of game.
But thanks to forcing some Wolves’ turnovers and getting into the open court, the Redwings quickly pounced – with Doyle and Katie Jaseckas proving to be the main beneficiaries.
Of the 19 points Jaseckas, a 6-foot-1 junior center, scored for Benet – 11 of them came in a first half that saw Benet lead by as many as 15 points.
An 18-2 run, ended by a Kendal Schramek three-pointer to start the second, turned a two-point Wolves’ lead into a 14-point Redwings’ lead at 22-8.
“They kind of junked it up,” Doyle said of the Wolves’ defensive approach. “They played a little zone, they played a little man. Tried to switch it up on us. But I think we just went at it with our offense and we really didn’t have a specific plan. We just ran our sets and we got open looks.”
Down 12 points at halftime and trailing by 18 points going to the fourth, Oswego East got as close as eight points with 17 seconds left in regulation as Ty Battle tried her best to get it back into the game.
The daughter of former West Aurora and Illinois star Kenny Battle, Ty Battle tallied 14 of her team-high 26 points in the fourth quarter to try and help the Wolves get their first sectional title.
However, in large part to the three biggest holdovers from last season’s Class 4A state champions – Doyle, Jaseckas and Elise Stout – the Redwings are a victory shy of getting back to Normal.
“One of our good traits that we have as a team is definitely being unflappable,” Jaseckas said. “We knew they’re going to go on a run, at least once in the game. We just knew we had to keep going and this is what we’ve waited for this whole season. We were really (focused on) this game and we didn’t let anything bug us.”
The trio of Doyle, Jaseckas and Stout combined for 61 of Benet’s 68 points.
“We like to play that way,” Benet coach Joe Kilbride said of being able to pick up the pace offensively. “We were going to do whatever we could to make it an up-and-down game. We were able to get some pace to the game, which is good for us. We got some runs there and got a little bit of distance and then had a couple sort of episodes where we got a little carried away with ourselves and brought them back a little bit.”
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