Girls Basketball: Benet beats Downers South for 14th win
Updated: January 24, 2012 10:40PM
Benet extended its winning streak to 14 games with a 52-41 nonconference home win Tuesday over Downers Grove South.
The Redwings made eight three-pointers for the night to just one for the Mustangs.
“That’s been the staple of our offense,” Benet coach Peter Paul said. “We’re the high-scoring team in the area and I think we feel very comfortable taking those threes.”
Junior guard Christen Prasse scored 15 points and grabbed a team-best five rebounds for the Redwings, who are now 18-4. Senior guard/forward Sarrah Ludwig also scored 15 to lead the 13-7 Mustangs.
Freshman forward Emily Schramek chipped in with 10 off the bench for Benet. Senior guard Sidney Prasse added eight points for the Redwings in a starting role.
Senior forward/center Alison Dec scored eight to go with a team-high seven rebounds for Downers South and fellow post player Kirsten Zemke, a junior, also scored eight.
The Mustangs got off to a quick 4-0 start but Benet went on a 9-0 run behind the Prasse sisters to storm back ahead for good. Christen Prasse (seven first-quarter points) drained two three-pointers and Sidney (five first-quarter points) added a trey of her own to swing the momentum back in the home team’s favor.
Christen Prasse made four three-pointers for the game. Her team’s exceptional long-distance marksmanship is just one facet of a highly balanced team.
“I think all of us can shoot, all of us can drive,” she said. “We all have the triple threat — we can play defense. That’s what makes us such a good team and that’s what’s been helping us win all of these games getting in this winning streak. And today my shot was on and I just kept shooting it.”
That three-point-shooting barrage was part of a larger 27-6 run that enabled the Redwings to take a commanding 27-10 lead with 4:05 to go in the second quarter.
Following a Schramek layup to cap that run, Downers South called a timeout to try to stall Benet’s momentum.
That strategy didn’t work, as the Redwings closed out the first half with a 32-16 lead.
Benet sophomore guard Eden Olson hit her team’s fifth three-pointer of the game to make it 30-12 shortly after the aforementioned timeout and senior forward Taylor Valentine knocked down a buzzer-beater from the right elbow to emphatically end the half.
“We just played a little timid, I think, at first and then just were too tentative,” Downers South coach Ellen O’Brien said. “Benet’s a great team, I mean they’re a very, very good club. They work hard, they’ve got great (players).
“We tried to run a couple different (defenses); I think we played four or five different junk defenses on them, trying to make something work. But, they’ve got an answer to a lot of different things. They’re multitalented and have different kind of weapons and they all stepped up and did what they were supposed to do. We didn’t necessarily do what we were supposed to do, but that’s how it works sometimes.”
The Mustangs committed 21 turnovers in the game to nullify a second-half comeback.
A three-pointer by Downers South guard/forward Katelyn Kubal late in the fourth cut the Redwings lead to its smallest amount since the first quarter at 52-41 — the game’s final score.
The Mustangs outrebounded Benet by a 24-20 margin.
“I think we had (a few) too many turnovers in this game,” Christen Prasse said. “(Downers South) had a lot of tipped passes but that’s easily fixable — we just need to fake more. But I think we defended well, we boxed out well (and) we shot well.”
© 2013 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.
Comments Click here to view or make a comment