Benet snaps Hawks' streak
Benet Academy entered the Hawks' house Thursday night prepared to play aggressive and leave it all on the court.
While Bartlett managed to stay close early, a late second quarter surge from Benet put the Redwings up 38-26 going into the break. The Redwings carried that momentum into the third quarter taking a 16-point lead at 44-28 following a 6-0 run, and pushed ahead to earn the 67-56 nonconference victory.
Ashley Santos took the Hawks on her shoulders early scoring 12 of the team's 14 first quarter points to keep Bartlett within reach. While Santos finished with a career-high 26 points, it wasn't enough to counter Benet leaders Nikki Bell, Jess Pavlinec and Ashley Veselik.
"I felt good out there, but I really wish we had a better offensive flow," Santos said. "As a team, we could've done better defensively, but I know we tried hard until the end."
Bartlett (12-8) could not shut the Redwings down inside. Forward Bell and center Pavlinec combined for 26 points and a dozen rebounds.
Both were effective all over the court. Bell led the team with 16 points including an 8-of-9 stint from the foul line, while Pavlinec (8 rebounds) added 14 points, scoring several times via the putback.
"We're starting to play as a very competitive team," said Benet coach Peter Paul. "Jess had an outstanding game rebounding, and we had three girls score in the double-digits."
Forward Ashley Veselik added 10 points for the Redwings.
"We shot the ball well, defensively we were hitting the boards, and we had a nice second quarter run that carried us through," said Paul.
Bartlett tried to counter with a zone defense, but Benet responded with four different players connecting from long-distance. Among them was Brianne Riley, who finished with 9 points.
"We tried to switch things up defensively," said Bartlett coach Denise Sarna. "When we went to a zone and they lit us up a bit."
Defensively, Benet (13-9) found a way to shut down Bartlett's inside game holding Jacki Gulczynski to just 5 points. Gulczynski did provide help on the other end of the court collecting 8 defensive boards.
"We didn't do a great job of getting Jacki the ball," Sarna said. "Ashley is capable of scoring a lot of points for us, and she made some hard baskets to keep us in the game, but we need more than one scorer."
Haley Videckis picked up some slack coming off the bench to score 10 points for the Hawks, while swiping a pair and pulling down 5 rebounds.
"Haley came in and provided a real spark for us," said Sarna. "She did a nice job getting us some points."
Becca Cronin scored 7 points for Bartlett, while Benet's Anne Doyle and Gintare Sankauskaite also scored 7 each.
"Bartlett is a young team and their future is solid," said Paul. "They come after you, and they have a very strong defense. We played well to counter that."
With the win, Benet stomped a 6-game win streak for Bartlett while picking up its sixth victory in seven games.
"We had a flat start," said Sarna. "Had we had the intensity we had late in the game, we might not have fallen behind early."
BOX SCORE
benet 67, Bartlett 56
Benet - Riley 2 2-3 7, Gallagher 1 0-0 3, Doyle 2 2-3 7, Ernstina 0 1-2 1, Bell 5 8-9 18, Veselik 4 2-2 10, Paulinec 5 4-4 14, Saniasolike 3 0-0 7. Totals 21 19-23 67
Bartlett - Beck 0 1-2 1, K. Gutzwiller 0 0-00, Cronin 3 0-0 7, Tovella 1 0-0 2, Videciks 3 4-7 10, Conniff 1 2-2 5, Santos 8 8-9 26, Carlson 0 0-0 0, Gulczynski 2 1-2 5. Totals 18 16-22 56
Benet 18 20 15 14 -67
Bartlett 14 12 15 15 -56
3-point baskets: BEN: Riley, Doyle, Saniasolike, BAR: Cronin, Santos (2), Conniff.
Fouled out: None.