Benet’s Lenee Beaumont and Carmel’s Jordan Wood are two of the most talented junior guards in the country.
Both are humble phenoms still learning how to harness their formidable talent while always putting on a show.
What the casual basketball fan doesn’t know is Beaumont and the 6-foot-5 Wood have been friends for several years, so much so that they’ve exchanged each other’s school shirts.
“That’s a tradition we’ve been doing since we were both freshmen,” said Wood, who is committed to Michigan State. “You know how they do jersey swaps in the NBA?
“We joked around saying we’re going to do it for high school. Obviously, we couldn’t swap jerseys, so we did shirts.”
The two exchange shirts whenever they run into each other. They play each other at least once a year during high school season and frequently during AAU.
“I have probably five Carmel shirts and she has a bunch of Benet stuff,” Beaumont said. “I’ll wear a Carmel shirt to practice sometimes.
“Coach is like, ‘You transferring on me?’ It’s a good joke. It’s pretty funny.”
The joking — and the friendship — gets put on hold when Benet and Carmel meet, which has happened twice this season.
The Corsairs gained revenge Wednesday night, edging the host Redwings 46-45 in the East Suburban Catholic Conference Tournament semifinals. Benet beat Carmel 39-35 on Jan. 19, also in Lisle.
In a seesaw game that saw neither team lead by more than four points, Samantha Trimberger scored on a layup off an assist by Beaumont with 16 seconds left Wednesday to give the Redwings a 45-43 lead.
But Carmel’s Ashley Schlabowske was ruled to have been fouled on a 3-point attempt with 1.8 seconds left. Benet coach Joe Kilbride called three timeouts, yet Schlabowske made all three free throws as the Corsairs (20-6) snapped a 10-game winning streak for Benet (23-3).
“I give her major credit,” Beaumont said of Schlabowske. “That’s a big-time play for sure, and we iced her. I’m not going to lie, I probably would have missed those.”
Beaumont didn’t miss much, sinking three straight 3-pointers in the second half. She finished with 13 points and four assists and teamed with Navy-bound senior center Morgan Demos, who had 16 points, 10 rebounds, four steals and three assists.
But Wood was sensational, scoring Carmel’s first 11 points. She had a game-high 25 points on 10-for-16 shooting. She scored her 1,000th career point on a post-up move in the second quarter to become the fourth player in program history, and second this season, to reach that plateau.
“It was definitely just all-around amazing game,” said Wood, who now has 1,011 career points. “The whole atmosphere was great, and we just came off two back-to-back wins with St. Viator in three days.
“We wanted to keep the same energy and possibly get an upset, which we ended up pulling off.”
Despite the loss, Kilbride liked the resilience shown by his players.
“We faced a little adversity and I thought the girls did a nice job of clawing their way back,” Kilbride said. “Our effort in the third quarter was amazing and I thought we executed in the fourth quarter.
“They just had a couple kids make plays. That’s all it came down to.”
Beaumont said the Redwings, who host Nazareth or Marist in Saturday’s third-place game, will bounce back quickly.
“It was just a weird ending,” Beaumont said. “As much as it sucks to lose, we’d much rather lose now than during playoffs.
“We’re going to regroup and take our whole team to a new level.”
Beaumont and Wood will take their friendship to a new level in the summer when they team together for the first time in club with Midwest Elite.
“I’m super excited to play with her because she’s such a smart player and knows how to play well,” Beaumont said. “It’s going to be a new, fun experience.”
Wood also is looking forward to it.
“The only time I’ve ever played with her is in practice for AAU, so I definitely can’t wait for the summer,” Wood said. “It’s going to be amazing.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.