Blake Fagbemi, Benet get resounding win over Rich at shootout

LISLE – Blake Fagbemi considers passing his best skill, and the Benet senior guard will take what the defense gives him.

He also won’t back away from a challenge.

When Fagbemi saw that Rich’s defenders were guarding him closely throughout Saturday’s game, he took it as a green light.

“They were up in my grill the whole game,” Fagbemi said. “I took advantage of the space they gave me and I got to the basket. My teammates were doing a good job of opening space for me. The floor was open.”

And Fagbemi attacked.

He scored 11 of his 22 points in the first quarter to spark Benet’s fast start, and ended up a few assists shy of a triple-double.

The Redwings blew open a four-point halftime lead and went on to a 73-56 win in the finale of the When Sides Collide Shootout at Benet.

Fagbemi had team-highs of 22 points, 11 rebounds and six assists, Jayden Wright 17 points, Colin Stack 15 points, eight rebounds and five blocks and Daniel Pauliukonis 14 points for Benet (20-4), which shot 67% from the floor in the win.

Al Brooks scored 14 points and Jayden Williams 13 for Rich (14-5), which came in ranked fifth in the latest Class 4A poll.

For Benet, ranked eighth, this was a signature win. The Redwings had lost to DePaul Prep at Pontiac in December and Bolingbrook earlier this week, other ranked opponents.

“This is a big win for us. We needed a win against a team like that,” Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. “Our kids stepped up and competed. I thought we competed at a high level almost the entire game.”

Fagbemi set the tone with three straight drives to the basket for scores in the early going. He didn’t change his approach whether defended by a guard or the 6-foot-7 Brooks.

His coast-to-coast drive and score through contact ended the first quarter with Benet ahead 17-9.

About the only thing Fagbemi didn’t do flawlessly was make free throws, missing five in a row at one point, although he was 8 for 13 for the game. But he did make a number of athletic, acrobatic shots around or through defenders.

“Just had to attack the basket,” Fagbemi said. “Attack the basket and the floor will open up and eventually they will lay off. I was excited for this game. My heartbeat was going up and up the whole day.”

Heidkamp wasn’t surprised at that start from Fagbemi, or the way he stuffed the stat sheet Saturday. Fagbemi, a 6-foot-1 guard and Truman State commit, is averaging 13.0 points, 7.0 assists and 5.5 rebounds on the year, and Heidkamp believed he may have had a previous triple double.

“He is not afraid. He’s been through it and he has a lot of toughness,” Heidkamp said. “He wants the ball and he wants to make plays. He is just physically strong for his size. He can do some things athletically that a lot of people his size can’t do.”

Benet led by as many as 11 in the first half, but opened the door with eight straight missed free throws before Rich closed the margin to 38-34 at half.

But Benet came out of halftime blazing.

Wright’s three-point play capped off a 7-0 run to start the third quarter, and Pauliukonis and Wright’s back-to-back 3-pointers pushed the advantage out to 58-44.

Meanwhile, Rich managed to score just 22 points in the second half. Fagbemi’s drive and score over the bigger Brooks ended the third quarter and he scored on another strong drive early in the fourth quarter to give Benet a 65-45 lead.

“We stuck together and played as a team. We knew if we played our game we would have an edge come second half,” Fagbemi said. “This was big, honestly bigger than a numbers game, to see our team bounce back.”

Indeed, Benet’s five games in nine days started with a surprising home loss to St. Patrick, but ended on a high in front of a raucous home crowd in a packed gym.

“I think last week we got a bit of a reality check losing to Pat’s,” Stack said. “They beat us. We didn’t shoot well, but they beat us.

“We had a meeting this week, and said do we want to go for individual stats or win games. We decided we needed to sacrifice more and win games.”