Boys Basketball: Benet wears out Joliet Catholic
By Mike Fitzgerald For Sun-Times Media January 12, 2013 12:20AM
Updated: February 14, 2013 6:37AM
A fan of defensive basketball would have loved Benet’s 47-18 East Suburban Catholic win over host Joliet Catholic on Friday night.
“I thought we were a little bit sluggish, but I have to credit Joliet Catholic for having a good game plan,” Redwings coach Gene Heidkamp said. “They did some things to slow us down, and I didn’t think we played all that well in the first quarter. But they had a good game plan for us and they executed it well.”
Benet (16-3, 3-0) led the Hilltoppers (4-16, 0-3) 10-8 after one quarter as Joliet Catholic used a 1-2-2 zone defense to try to neutralize the Redwings’ size advantage on offense. When they had the ball, the Hilltoppers slowed the tempo of the game.
“I was very pleased with our effort. Our kids played very hard. They were digging. They were giving up seven or eight inches to some kids,” Joliet Catholic coach Joe Gura said.
Benet led 19-10 at halftime, thanks to some gritty defense of its own. Several Redwings steals resulted in layups.
“We needed to generate offense off our defense,” Heidkamp said. “We missed shots that we normally make, and they did a good job of taking us out of any kind of offensive flow, so those extra scores we got from our defense proved to be helpful for us during the course of the game.”
Benet’s 6-foot-5 Jack Euritt, 6-5 Pat McInerney and 6-9 Sean O’Mara combined for just 11 points, but they did other things to help the Redwings.
“Two things really got us,” Gura said. “Offensive rebounds for them, and their length really bothered us in attempting to score.”
Joliet Catholic shot 4-of-22 from the floor. Benet guard Eddie Eshoo led all scorers with 11 points.
