Boys Basketball: Benet leads wire-to-wire, answers Marian Catholic runs in road victory

CHICAGO HEIGHTS – The Benet boys basketball team certainly is fun to watch.

Brady Kunka poured in a team-high 20 points and added 13 rebounds as the Redwings survived some shaky stretches and defeated Marian Catholic 57-49 in an East Suburban Catholic Conference matchup Feb. 3 in Chicago Heights.

The victory was the ninth straight for Benet (25-1, 13-0), which moved another step closer to clinching the ESCC for the second straight year and the fifth time in the past 14 seasons – although Marist (22-5, 11-2) stayed in contention with a 42-41 win over St. Patrick. The loss eliminated Marian Catholic (21-7, 9-5), which defeated the Redwings in last year’s ESCC tournament title game, from this season’s conference race.

“We know it’s a very tough place to play,” Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said of playing at Marian Catholic. “[The Spartans] kept playing all the way until the end. That’s because [Marian Catholic coach] Mike Taylor is one of the best there is and his kids really played well.”

The Redwings know that from last season, when there was an ESCC tournament at the end of the year. They lost to host Marian Catholic 55-46 on Feb. 12, 2022, in the title game. There is no end-of-the-season tournament this year, so it’s all based on the regular-season results.

In the Feb. 3 game, Benet scored the first five points and led the whole way.

“The biggest thing was to stay together and trust each other,” Kunka said. “Last year we came out super flat [in the tournament title game]. So tonight we had to bring our energy and sustain it.”

Ahead 30-17 at halftime and 34-19 two minutes into the third quarter, things looked good for the Redwings. But Marian Catholic went on a 9-0 run and closed to within 34-28 with 1:47 left in the third quarter on a three-point play by senior guard Quentin Jones, who scored 18 of his game-high 23 points in the second half and had six rebounds in the game.

Two free throws by senior guard Brayden Fagbemi (9 points) upped the Benet lead to 36-28 after three quarters. Kunka, a senior forward, then scored eight of his points, including capping a 12-2 burst with back-to-back three-point plays to extend the advantage to 48-30 midway through the fourth quarter.

“The guys were able to find me for a few layups,” Kunka said. “There were some ups and downs, but it’s a game of runs.”

The Spartans had one more run in them, scoring 19 points in the final 3:46 and closing to within 56-49 with 16.2 seconds left. But a Kunka free throw a few seconds later finished the scoring.

“We had spurts when we were really good,” Heidkamp said. “Then we had other spurts where we lost ourselves.”

Seniors Andy Nash (13 points) at guard and Nikola Abusara (7 points, 7 rebounds) at forward also contributed for the Redwings, who had a 10-0 first-quarter run and led 15-6 after one quarter.

Senior guard Donovan Juzang (11 points) and junior guard Jonah Weathers (9 points) were big for Marian Catholic.

“The biggest thing is just to play with intensity and stick together,” Kunka said. “This is a fun group to play with and we all knew we were capable of putting a good season together.”

The Redwings have an excellent opportunity to reach the 30-win mark this season. If they do, it will be the third time in school history, joining the 1978-79 team (30-3, third in Class AA) and 2015-16 team (31-4, second in Class 4A).

“A lot of guys can step up,” Heidkamp said of the key to this season’s success. “We can play really well together, and when we move the ball and do that, we are fun to watch.”