Shooters are going to shoot.
With the way Benet started Tuesday against Joliet West, all its stable of shooters could do was just keep firing.
At some point, they knew the dam was going to brake inside Northern Illinois’ Convocation Center.
Thanks to a 26-point second quarter, Benet was able to seize control on its way to securing a 67-59 victory over Joliet West in a Class 4A NIU Super-Sectional.
Four Redwings – led by James Dockery and Jack Nolan with 16 points apiece – finished in double figures as they turned the tide after a slow start.
“We knew the offense would start to come along,” Dockery said. “We started the game off – we just weren’t finding the net very well, but they were getting whatever they wanted offensively. So once we started to get those stops, we started – the offense started to come along and that’s when we started to make that run.”
In the first half alone, the Redwings shot five-of-10 from beyond the three-point line to get out to a lead as big as 11 points late in the half.
A 15th straight victory in tow, Benet (30-3) gets Simeon on Friday in the second Class 4A state semifinal.
A second trip to Peoria in three years comes for Gene Heidkamp and his team, which matches the 1978-79 team for most victories in team history.
“I couldn’t be prouder of these guys because I don’t know what the expectation level was outside of our locker room coming into this year,” Heidkamp said, “and to have this type of year, to be co-champs in our conference and to make it downstate – I think it speaks volumes for these guys and the rest of our team.”
Avenging a 59-53 loss in December to the Tigers at Pontiac, Benet didn’t panic when things weren’t going its way early.
“We didn’t really think of it as a revenge game,” said Jason Malonga, who recorded 13 points along with Danny Sobolewski. “They’re just in the way of where we wanted to go. It’s a great byproduct – beating them to get downstate – but we didn’t really think of it as a revenge game. But it’s good to get back at them and beat a team that we lost to earlier in the season.”
After falling behind by seven points twice early in the first – in large part of shooting just two-of-10 from the field, the Redwings got a 12-0 run going behind Dockery and Malonga.
Two triples highlighted an eight-point stretch for Dockery while Malonga chipped in with a pair of buckets as Benet turned a 11-4 Joliet West lead into a 16-11 advantage of its own.
The run was extended out to 17-3 with about three minutes to play in the half as a Jack Nolan triple and another Malonga bucket put the Redwings up seven at 21-14.
Up by nine going into the break, Benet saw Joliet West begin the second half on a 8-3 run to get within four points at 35-31.
But a 19-8 run to end the third put the Redwings up 15 points going to the fourth as four different players combined on the 19 points.
The Tigers cut the Redwings’ lead to as low as five points with under two minutes to play by pressing and trapping, but the Redwings were able to close things out from the free-throw line.
“The game was really in doubt until late in the fourth quarter,” Nolan said. “I thought we really had to close the deal, especially when they came back there in the fourth quarter with their pressure. But I thought we stayed poised, kept our composure eventhough they made that run. I thought we really needed to close it out at the end and we did.”
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