Benet Beats JCA in Wild Weekend

“The Original March Madness” began 8 days early this year, and this weekend of basketball was absolutely spectacular.  Seeds for the IHSA State Tournament, which begins on March 3, were released on Thursday, and the playoff brackets were released Friday.  On Friday, #1 Curie outlasted #3 Whitney Young by a score of 69-66 in four overtimes to win the Chicago Public League tournament championship in a game that saw the Condors blow a six point lead in the final 30 seconds of regulation.  That same night saw a double overtime contest between #2 Stevenson and #15 Lake Forest.  Lake Forest forward Evan Boudreaux scored 43 points, but Stevenson junior point guard Jalen Brunson, who already has five Big Ten offers, scored a school-record 56 points.  Lake Forest hit a game-tying shot with three seconds left in regulation to force overtime and then tied the game again with 16 seconds remaining in the first overtime.  However, a Brunson runner with six seconds left in the second overtime put the Patriots up 95-93 and proved to be the dagger for Stevenson. 

Neither team had any time to rest, as Stevenson played #6 Simeon on Saturday, and Lake Forest played #4 Marian Catholic.  The Patriots were able to defeat Simeon 65-56 in a rematch of last year’s IHSA Class 4A State Championship.  Stevenson trailed in the second half, but a personal 8-0 by junior guard Connor Cashaw put Stevenson up 42-36, and Stevenson led the rest of the way.

Lake Forest, however, could not keep pace with Marian Catholic and fell 67-63.  Marian senior point guard Tyler Ulis, who has committed to play at Kentucky, scored 35 of a career-high 42 points in the second half.  Lake Forest led by one with just over one minute remaining, but Ulis scored seven points in the final 55 seconds to seal the game for the Spartans.  A heartbreaking weekend for Lake Forest ended with two losses by a combined six points to teams whose combined record is 49-3.

And now back to the East Aurora Sectional in which Benet is the #1 seed.  On Friday, Glenbard North upset #5-seeded Naperville Central to force a three-way tie in the DuPage Valley Conference.  West Aurora, the third team in the first-place tie, kept pace with a 50-38 win over Wheaton North.  The following day, #2-seeded West Aurora survived an upset-minded #9-seed Naperville North 42-40 in overtime.  Senior guard Jontrell Walker scored a game-high 24 points, and junior Tommy Koth hit a game-winning layup with 1.2 seconds left in overtime.  Naperville Central responded with a blowout win over Wheaton North, and #10-seeded Plainfield East surprised #7-seed Neuqua Valley 61-58.  Lastly, Benet pulled away from Joliet Catholic in the second half and won 72-46.  The Redwings led 25-24 in the second quarter before a 41-10 run put the game out of reach.

Benet’s final regular season game is on Wednesday, February 26 at home against Carmel.  A win in this game guarantees at least a third-place finish in the East Suburban Catholic Conference behind conference champion Marian Catholic and St. Viator.

Benet, as noted earlier, is the #1 seed in the East Aurora Sectional, followed by West Aurora, Bolingbrook, Hinsdale Central, and Naperville Central.  The Redwings face the winner of Lemont High School and Oswego East on Tuesday, March 4 in the regional semifinal, and would then play the winner of Naperville North and #8-seed Waubonsie Valley in the Lemont Regional championship.  Looking farther ahead, Benet would likely face the winner of Hinsdale Central and Naperville Central in the sectional semifinal, and then the winner of West Aurora and either Bolingbrook or Geneva in the East Aurora Sectional final.  West Aurora has won the last two sectional championships, including a 42-38 upset of Benet last year.  If the Redwings survive their sectional, Benet would face #1-seed York, beaten earlier in the season by the Redwings, or #2-seed Proviso East for a chance to go to the State Final Four.  The other teams ‘downstate’ would likely be Marian Catholic, Stevenson, and one of the Chicago Public League powers, Curie, Whitney Young, or Simeon.  Because of their geographical proximity, only one of Chicago’s three top basketball schools can win a sectional championship.