In a lot of ways, it was an out-of-body experience for Benet’s Colin Crothers.
The sophomore center had the ball in his hands off a steal, and he let his inner point guard come out in the third quarter Wednesday night against Lake Forest,
Executing a spin move just past midcourt, Crothers took it the whole way as part of scoring eight points in the quarter of a 41-34 victory in Lisle.
“I was just trying to put the ball in the basket, to be honest,” he said. “I saw the ball. (The Lake Forest player) had the ball toward the outside, so I knew I could get at least a tip on it to slow him down. Once it was loose, I went at it.
“I saw no one else ahead of me but I saw him on my side. He was going to try to block it or go for the steal, so I spun it.”
Behind Crothers and an intensified defensive effort in the second half, the Redwings (8-2) outlasted Lake Forest (3-7).
Benet placed two players in double figures, with Crothers and senior guard Jake Ronneberg were scoring 12 and 10 points, respectively.
“We knew offense would come if we just got stops and put together stops on defense,” Crothers said.
Benet hit six free throws in the game’s final 33 seconds to help seal the win, with Ronneberg converting four.
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Lake Forest scored the first six points of the fourth and got as close as three points with just over a minute left to play, but the Redwings avoided a repeat of a 35-34 loss on Dec. 2 to DePaul Prep
“(That loss) definitely was a heartbreaker,” Ronneberg said. “But it really did help us for later in the season. Just improving on keeping our composure at the end of games and learning how to close out games.
“We were able to knock down a couple free throws at the end.”
After Ronneberg’s 3-pointer gave Benet a 19-16 halftime lead, the Redwings then scored the first nine points of the third quarter to take charge.
A basket from Sean Trkla with 1:49 left in the third finally got the Scouts on the board in the second half.
“Coming out of halftime, our defense gave us the energy in the third quarter and I think that’s what sparked our run,” Ronneberg said. “We were able to turn our defense into offense, but we just wanted to stick to what we do.
“Share the ball and shoot open shots and make sure we limit our turnovers. We were able to do that in the third quarter, and that was the turning point of the game.”
Blake Baumgartner is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun