Fighting Irish set to take on Marauders
Andrew Benko was determined to not let history repeat itself.
After being upset in the quarter-finals of last year’s tournament, the 17-year-old, Grade 12 guard for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish took matters into his own hands to make sure his team would live another day.
Benko poured in 19 points to lead the Irish past the Holy Cross Raiders 72-42 in a championship round quarter-final game Thursday at the 67th Annual Welland Tribune Basketball Tournament.
The Irish sputtered out of the gate, something Benko chalked up anxiousness.
“I think it was just a little bit of nerves,” he said. “We got knocked out in the quarter-finals last year and that put a little bit of pressure on us to make it to the semifinals. We couldn’t get it going on offence, but once we got ball rolling we were all good.”
Asked if he was thinking of last year’s tournament, Benko was brutally honest.
“Ya, a little bit,” he smiled.
Notre Dame coach Andrew Lucchetta said the topic of last season’s loss dominated practice this week.
“They really wanted to get to the Friday at least and go from there,” he said. “It’s a monkey off their backs because last year they felt they didn’t play to their potential and they knew they had to make up for that.”
Benko turned in a consistent performance, netting 11 points in the first half and eight more in the final eight minutes.
“A little bit of everything,” the Pelham Panthers club player said when asked about his role. “I just do what the coaches need me to do. If they need me to defend, I’ll defend. If I need to get a bucket for the team, whatever they need, I’ll step up and do it.”
Lucchetta is a big fan of Benko.
“That guys means everything to us,” he said. “He brings leadership, he leads by example, he talks all the time. He’s the first guy to practice and is always communicating with the guys. He’s a true leader and with his skill level and the way he plays, he’s all heart. He just doesn’t stop.”
Benko is eager to take on the A.N. Myer Marauders on Notre Dame’s home court Friday.
“It feels amazing. We have a good group of guys and we’ve been working hard all season. We’ve been playing for moments like this so we’ll be ready for tomorrow,” he said.
Lucchetta, too, is pumped for the matchup of the long-time rivals.
“We’re looking forward to it big time,” he said. “We had one game against them in December and we lost a close one but this has a lot more meaning. That was more of an exhibition game so this time around the guys know Myer is a good team and so they’ll definitely be ready to go.”
The Raiders gave the Irish a run for their money early on.
“They played us tough defensively and we finally decided to play the ball in the middle and we started scoring points,” Lucchetta said. “I told our guys at halftime we were 9-for-11 from two-point range so you have to keep shooting inside.
“We finally locked in on defence. They scored I think five points in the third quarter. We just shut them down defensively and that helped us offensively.”
Holy Cross coach Austin Anderson felt his charges ran out of gas.
“We tried to put in a few different looks defensively to prepare for their three-point shooting and break their press and it got to the guys trying to balance out a new system at game time. We have a lot of good players, but not a lot of good players with game experience,” he said.
Fighting Irish 72 Raiders 42
Notre Dame Fighting Irish: Andrew Benko 19; Trent Groulx 19; Devon Devost 16; Nicholas Capretta 6; William Benko 4;
DiGioia 2; Colton Kizlyk 2.
Holy Cross Raiders: Nathan Beveridge 11; Terrell Wallace 10; Matteo D’Aria 10; Owen Corcoran 4; Hunter Herring-Dent 3; Owen Bradford-Andrew 2; Joey Young 2.
Mountainview Building Group players of the game: Andrew Benko and Wallace.
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