Benet’s Dan Sobolewski curled off a screen, took James Dockery’s pass and hit a 3-pointer less than a minute into Friday’s game.
More was to come.
Jack Nolan hit five of the Redwings’ 12 3-pointers, and Benet breezed to a surprisingly lopsided 69-34 East Suburban Catholic Conference win over St. Patrick in Lisle.
Nolan scored 17 points for Benet (18-3, 4-1), while Liam Lyman had 12 and Justin Enochs added nine on three 3-pointers.The Redwings raced out to a 20-5 lead and never looked back.
“It was a fun first quarter,” Nolan said. “I think the whole team shot well. We played good defense and it translated over to the offensive end. It seemed like everybody was hitting shots.”
Nolan is developing a reputation in his first varsity season as a dead-on shooter. He did nothing to dispel that thought Friday.
In leading Benet’s early onslaught, the junior guard hit his first four shots, three from beyond the 3-point arc. He hit a corner three off a Dockery feed, and 30 seconds later, swished one from the top of the key.
Later, Nolan’s fourth three keyed an 8-0 run at the start of the second quarter as Benet opened up a double-digit lead for good. Lyman, another junior who can shoot, got it going later.
“We shot the ball well, and we made shots early. Whenever you are making shots your energy picks up,” Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. “We have the ability to do that. We have good shooters.”
Indeed, Benet shot 10-for-20 from 3-point range over the first three quarters, then emptied its bench. The Redwings’ point total was their second-highest of the season.
Benet rediscovered its transition game, something that was lost in recent grind-out games.
“The fast break was something we tried to focus on in practice this week,” Nolan said. “At the beginning of the year it was a strength of ours, and we kind of got away from it.
“Finding 3-pointers, and just open shots on fast breaks is a lot easier because the defense isn’t set as well.”
Sobolewski and Jason Malonga each added six points and six rebounds for Benet, which had a full week to work out the kinks in its offense.
“What’s happened is we’ve become more of a half-court offense and it’s become a struggle to score points. That was a big point of emphasis,” Heidkamp said. “We need to find a way to get looks at the basket more before the defense is set.”
Benet’s win, coupled with Marian Catholic beating Marist, put the Redwings alone a game back of Marian in the conference race.
St. Patrick (11-10, 3-2), which was led by Jalen Nelson’s 13 points, came in with wins at Notre Dame and against Marist.
Heidkamp, a St. Patrick graduate, was an assistant for 12 seasons for Shamrocks coach Mike Bailey. Heidkamp didn’t see a 35-point win coming.
“They’re a very good team and he’s a Hall of Fame coach,” Heidkamp said. “It was one of those days that everything seemed to go right for us.”
Joshua Welge is a freelance writer for the Naperville Sun.
