Barret Benson couldn’t recall the last time he had a game-winning basket for Hinsdale South’s boys basketball team.
The 6-foot-10 Northwestern-bound Benson said he hasn’t had many opportunities with the Hornets, but made a few for the Illinois Wolves during the AAU season.
With Hinsdale South’s prospects of advancing to the quarterfinals of York’s 42nd annual Jack Tosh Holiday Classic at stake, Benson sank a layup at the buzzer Monday, Dec. 28, as the Hornets erased a 16-point third-quarter deficit to beat Minooka 52-50 in Elmhurst.
Hinsdale South coach Brett Moore called two timeouts in the final 14 seconds to set up the game-winning basket. The Hornets (8-2) used almost all nine seconds remaining of their final possession before junior Diamond Anderson finally located an open Benson.
“When D.J. has the ball, he does a great job of looking at the post,” Benson said. “My man sagged (on defense).”
Benson turned to his right for a running layup as the buzzer sounded and an official ruled immediately that the basket counted. He finished with a game-high 24 points with nine rebounds
“We’ll miss (Benson) after this year. We’ll miss the entire Benson family after eight years now,” said Moore, referring to Barret’s older brother, Brock Benson. “Barret has been a varsity player for four years. He has scored a lot of points. I’m glad he got that one at the end.”
Hinsdale South will play Metea Valley at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 29.
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The Hornets took a 50-47 lead on Anderson’s fastbreak layup with 55 seconds to go. Minooka (7-4) scored only one basket in the fourth quarter, Larry Roberts’ game-tying 3-pointer with 16 seconds remaining to snap an 18-2 run for Hinsdale South.
Minooka led 43-27 with 2:57 to go in the third quarter before the Hornets mounted their comeback.
“They shot the ball really well,” Moore said. “They exposed every mistake we made on defense. We played like we were still at home playing video games.”
In last year’s Tosh debut, the Hornets lost 59-36 to St. Ignatius in the second round. The Hornets went 1-3 in last year’s tournament a year after winning DeKalb’s Dayton Holiday tournament.
Twitter @geomwilcox