CHAMPAIGN — When a 7-foot-1 center like Benet senior Colin Stack is in the huddle, he tends to stand out, even to teammates.
So when the Redwings gathered one more time after the fifth consecutive timeout was called before an increasingly dramatic inbounds play with two seconds left in a tied Class 4A state semifinal game on Friday, junior forward Edvardas Stasys recalled something the coaches had presented to them during the season.
“They actually showed that play for literally one day in practice, and I remembered it was a pretty good play,” Stasys said. “We have Colin, who has great size, so I honestly just remembered it, and I told coach, ‘This might work.’ It was us using our size to our advantage.”
The ball was inbounded to Stack under the basket, and he was fouled with 1.1 seconds to go. The North Dakota State recruit missed the first free throw but made the second, lifting Benet over DePaul Prep 39-38 at the State Farm Center.
“I have to give credit to my teammates,” Stack said. “Right beforehand, (senior guard) Ryan Walsh said, ‘It’s you in an empty gym.’
“Obviously, I missed the first one, so I just blocked it out and focused on the second one.”
Stack finished with nine points and six rebounds for the defending state champion Redwings (36-1), who will take a 33-game winning streak into the state final against East Suburban Catholic Conference rival Marist (32-5) at 6 p.m. Saturday. Senior guard Jayden Wright, an Eastern Illinois recruit, scored a team-high 11 points, and Stasys had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Senior forward Rashaun Porter, a Toledo recruit, scored a game-high 14 points for DePaul Prep (32-4), which won the 2A state title in 2023 and the 3A state title in 2024 and 2025.
The Rams twice clawed back from six-point deficits in the last 3 1/2 minutes and tied the game at 38-38 on Porter’s basket with 2:01 left.
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Stack’s alley-oop pass to Stasys for a dunk established one of those leads for Benet, and that kind of connectivity has come in handy.
“I love these guys,” Stack said. “I feel like that’s why we’ve been so successful throughout this season. We’re 36-1, and after that one loss, we all got together and told each other, ‘We’re a really good team,’ and we kept working from there.”
The Redwings haven’t lost since Nov. 30, and Stack’s continued development has been paramount.
“He’s an unbelievable player,” Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. “He contributes in so many ways. He can catch the ball, as you saw on that last play. He handles the ball, he’s a factor around the rim and he’s a great teammate.
“He’s had a great run the last couple of years as a huge part of our team, and I couldn’t be prouder to see him knock that last one down.”
Stack tries to stay levelheaded during moments like that.
“Even though I’m 7-1, I feel like if you overthink certain situations in close games, that’ll hurt you,” he said. “You have to stay calm and poised. Throughout all of those timeouts, we all just had to be coachable. The defenses were changing, the lineups were changing, the people guarding you were changing. You can’t really think like that in those games.”
Steve Reaven is a freelance reporter. This story will be updated.