Boys basketball: Christian Benning, Bulldogs overwhelm Wilmington right from the start

STREATOR — If one sequence can encapsulate an entire basketball game, the opening 16 seconds of the Streator Bulldogs’ 60-34 Illinois Central Eight Conference triumph over the Wilmington Wildcats on Friday did the trick.

Wilmington won the opening tip just to have the Bulldogs’ Christian Benning pick the ball clean and race the other way for a quick and easy two points.

Not all of Benning’s points on the night came that easily, but a lot of them did. The junior added six steals and seven rebounds to his 33 points on 13-of-23 shooting from the field and 6-of-8 from the free-throw line before leaving with 7:02 remaining, his Bulldogs comfortably ahead by 24 points in front on an electrified Pops Dale Gymnasium crowd.

“I got a lot of steals, those were some easy points right there,” Benning said. “And my guys are shooters, so [opposing teams] aren’t going to come up [to help]. They’ve seen that on film, my teammates can shoot it, so that helps. ...

“We’re moving the ball really well and playing defense. The ball pressure is just crazy right now. We’re getting a lot of turnovers and not [committing] a lot of turnovers on offense.”

“Our defensive game plan was obviously to try to stop him,” Wildcats coach Doug Krop said of Benning. “We knew he was a hardcore driver, but we were just a step too slow, and our help defense really wasn’t there.

“But you know what? We’re battling and trying to get better every day. We’re improving. We’re not quite there yet, but we’ll get there.”

Landon Muntz drained a pair of first-quarter 3s on his way to a 10-point, six-rebound night for Streator. Matt Williamson (six points), Logan Aukland (five steals) and Austin Taylor (five fourth-quarter points) were also leaders as the Bulldogs won their fourth straight to improve to 4-3 overall and 3-0 in the ICE heading into Saturday night’s visit from Route 23 rival Ottawa.

“There’s no better way to establish our identity on the defensive end like we’ve started to establish the last couple games then to come out, put ball pressure on and get a steal the first possession of the game to get a layup to set the tone for the entire game,” said Bulldogs coach Beau Doty after his 201st career victory.

“Right now, [Benning] is playing at a very high level. He’s playing at a good pace, his shot selection is really good, and when he gets his shoulders going downhill, he’s about impossible to stop when he gets below the free-throw line.”

Benning’s opening-seconds prelude of things to come was part of another hot start at The Pops for the hosts. Streator raced off to an 8-0 lead with a pair of Benning steal/layup combos sandwiched around the first of Muntz’s 3-pointers. The Bulldogs’ advantage waxed to as many as 20 points in the first half, settling at 34-15 by halftime.

Wilmington — now 1-2 both overall and on the ICE loop — came out of the halftime break determined to climb at least somewhat back in it, and did so by putting together their own half-opening 8-0 run to draw as close as 11 points, 34-23. Ryder Meents canned a pair of 3-pointers in that stretch on his way to a team-high 12 points, but the rally proved to be short-lived as a Williamson drive to the hoop started a run that ended with another Williamson lay-in to return the Bulldogs lead to 20 heading to the fourth.

“The guys were hanging their heads a little bit [at halftime],” Krop said, “and I just told them at halftime, the game starts over. We had to try to win the first four minutes of the third and break it up like that ... and try to chip away.

“We came out a little re-energized, but then it started going back to what wasn’t really working for us.”

Reid Juster’s seven points were second for the Wildcats to Meents’ dozen. Kyle Farrell added five points, while Ryan Nelson came off the bench to grab a team-best 10 rebounds.

For the evening, Streator outshot Wilmington 41.3% (24 of 58) to 24% (12 of 50) from the field, outrebounded the Wildcats 35-32 and won the turnovers forced battle 20-9.