Colin Bonnett couldn’t see very well out of his right eye late in Monday night’s game.
However, the Benet senior liked what he saw earlier.
Bonnett got poked in the eye in the fourth quarter, but by then the Redwings had pretty much sealed a 63-52 victory over Naperville North in a Hoops for Healing Tournament game in Naperville.
“We did a great job of breaking their press,” he said. “Once we started getting the ball on the defensive glass, we started getting it out on transition and pushing it.”
Rebounding proved to be crucial and the Redwings (1-0) enjoyed a 25-16 edge, while the Huskies (0-1) only collected three offensive rebounds.
“That’s going to be the question mark with our team all year,” Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. “We don’t have a lot of size, so can we compete on the glass? If we can compete on the glass at that level, it gives us a real shot against very good teams.”
The Redwings showed they could rebound. The Huskies didn’t.
“We started with war (rebounding drill) the first day (of practice),” Naperville North coach Jeff Powers said. “We thought we needed that toughness and that energy rebounding and I think they out-toughed us and out-rebounded us.”
Naperville North actually got off to a great start, jumping ahead 15-4 late in the first quarter, but the Redwings battled back, closing the first quarter on a 6-0 run and pulling to within 27-26 at halftime.
“I think their experience was a factor at the beginning of the game and our inexperience was a factor as well,” Heidkamp said. “I thought our kids settled down and played with poise in the second half and that was the key.”
Bonnett led the Redwings with 21 points. Newcomer James Dockery added 16 and Dan Sobolewski had 11.
“Once (Dockery) got his feet wet he played with a lot of confidence down the stretch,” Heidkamp said. “He shot the ball well, got to the basket a few times and played very well defensively.”
Another newcomer, Cameron Graves, led the Redwings with seven rebounds.
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“Graves is a good basketball player who does a lot of the intangibles,” Heidkamp said. “He can handle the ball for a bigger guy and he made a couple nice passes to guys cutting under the basket.”
Mitch Lewis led the Huskies with 15 points while Brian Dalton added 14 and Baylor Griffin had 10.
“Mitch was pretty good and Cam Hardy, the other sophomore, came in and did some good things,” Powers said. “Baylor worked his tail off and was very, very positive, and probably the best guy in the game was Brian Dalton. He had an outstanding game, but we’ve got to learn how to play defense, block out and rebound.”