Emma Briggs is the kind of girls basketball player uncommon in high school, and at times impossible to contend with.

Benet’s 6-foot senior has the frame to overpower smaller girls in the post. But Briggs has the handles and shooting of a guard, skills developed over three summers playing for Great Britain in the FIBA EuroBasket competition.

“My versatility is the strongest part of my game and I’ve developed a shot so they have to guard me on the perimeter,” said Briggs, a Furman commit. “I do know that I can be a matchup nightmare for teams like this.”

That mismatch played out Thursday.

Briggs scored Benet’s first 17 points, and finished with a career-high 36 points.

And the top-seeded Redwings needed every one of them to overcome eighth-seeded Oswego East 58-50 in the Class 4A Benet Regional final.

Benet (26-4), with its 12th straight regional title, advances to face Bolingbrook in Tuesday’s sectional semifinal at East Aurora.

But the Redwings got all they wanted in a high-level game on both sides.

Oswego East (18-11) trailed 29-21 at half, but twice pulled to within three in the second half and had 3-point shots for the tie miss. The second came with just under six minutes left and Benet clinging to a 46-43 lead.

Briggs also had 12 rebounds and three blocks and Richmond recruit Bridget Rifenburg 15 points and seven rebounds for Benet. Aubrey Lamberti scored 15 points, Desiree Merritt 13 and Ja’liyah Shepard 12 for Oswego East, who hit seven 3-pointers.

“They’re very good,” Benet coach Joe Kilbride said of Oswego East. “They played really well tonight, they play hard and they shot it well tonight. They’re a nice team.”

What the Wolves are not is particularly tall, their two tallest players 5-foot-10. Inspire Fisher, a 5-foot-6 junior, had the initial assignment of guarding Briggs, and picked up three fouls in the first quarter.

The Wolves switched Merritt, a 5-foot-7 guard, on her.

Briggs was dominant inside, making 11 of 16 shots from the field and 11 from 13 at the free throw line.

“They’re kind of a more undersized team and it’s hard for them to match up,” said Briggs, whose previous career high was 27 points. “It started working the first few possessions. Coach said if they can’t guard her, just give her the ball.”

Both times Oswego East closed within three in the second half, Briggs answered with baskets after the Wolves missed 3s.

“Emma, they really had a hard time guarding her,” Kilbride said. “I felt bad, I never took her out. I told her I’ll get you a blow. But my assistants told me ‘if you take her out we’re quitting.’”

As Oswego East found out, Briggs’ game is much more than the post. She hit a 3-pointer in the second quarter and had two spectacular drives and scores in a 13-point third quarter when Benet just spread the floor for her.

“She is amazing,” Lamberti said. “She is so strong and physical. We would be double-teaming her and she would still find a way to score.”

Briggs and Rifenburg, who scored eight of her 15 in the fourth quarter, are the two remaining players from Benet’s 2023 Class 4A state runner-up. A bit player on that team, Briggs has made a quantum leap as a player.

“She has made a huge jump really from sophomore year to now. I think Great Britain, FIBA has been very good for her, expanding her skills,” Kilbride said. “Now she is an elite player and she’s under control.”

Oswego East needed a buzzer-beater by Lamberti on Tuesday to beat Neuqua Valley, but went blow-for-blow with Benet all Thursday.

Shepard, one of two junior starters, scored eight in the first quarter, banking in a 3-pointer to pull the Wolves within 14-12 after a quarter.

Merritt and Lamberti got it going in the second and Warbinski had her turn in the third with eight points and two 3-pointers.

The second closed Oswego East within 39-36.

“Everyone had huge games. That’s what we needed to do,” Lamberti said. “Sad that it is over but it was fun.”

Lamberti graduates as Oswego East’s all-time leading scorer. Merritt, like Lamberti a four-year starter, will finish top two or three.

With talent like that, the Wolves always seemed to have potential, and accomplished a lot, but never reached a regional final in those seniors’ careers until Thursday.

Once there, they elevated their play against an elite opponent.

“For me, I knew this group could be in this game even sooner – I was glad they got this opportunity, wish they had it the year before," Oswego East coach Abe Carretto said. “I told them it was going to be a heck of a game and it would be fun. They kept fighting back. We just fell short.”

https://www.shawlocal.com/my-suburban-life/2026/02/20/benet-behind-emma-briggs-career-best-36-points-overcomes-oswego-east-in-regional-final/