Jack Nolan put on a spectacular display for Benet in the fourth quarter Friday night at St. Patrick.
The senior guard scored 20 of his team’s 25 points in the quarter, leading the way as the Redwings rallied from an 11-point deficit.
But as Nolan brought the ball across midcourt in the final seconds, he was met by a stiff defense. He lost control as time ran out in a 76-73 East Suburban Catholic loss to the Shamrocks.
“That’s what high school basketball is all about, coming down to the wire,” said Nolan, who scored 27 of his game-high 35 points in the second half. “It was a lot of fun.
“There’s games that I don’t have to score many points, there’s games that I do. This was one of those games that I felt (scoring) was best for my team.”
St. Patrick (13-2, 3-0) led from three minutes left in the first quarter until Benet (11-4, 1-2) tied it at 71-71 on a jumper by Nolan with 2:32 remaining.
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Nolan tied it again at 73-73 on a jumper with 49 seconds to go. St. Patrick then took the lead for good when Laurence Merritt hit a 3-pointer with 5 seconds left.
Benet scored a season high for points, but also allowed a season high.
“We had a lot of difficulty containing them,” Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. “We were never able to get a big defensive stop. We gave up too many easy baskets around the rim.”
St. Patrick put four players in double figures. Merritt finished with a team-high 18 points, while Xavier Pinson and Ayo Ajayi had 14 each.
The Redwings also received 13 points from Liam Lyman and 10 from Matt Teglia.
The Shamrocks, who led 38-32 at halftime, moved ahead 61-50 early in the fourth quarter. Nolan then scored 11 consecutive points and finished with 20 of Benet’s final 23.
“Jack Nolan’s a great player,” Heidkamp said. “He did a great job down the stretch of the game of creating offense for us.”
Shamrocks coach Mike Bailey seconded that.
“He’s just a great player, taking over in the fourth quarter like a senior should,” Bailey said. “He’s as good a player as we have played against. He’s a great representative for the ESCC.”
Bob Hurst is a freelance writer for the Naperville Sun.