Benet senior forward Daniel Pauliukonis looked at the sellout crowd and felt inspired.
The Southern Illinois recruit couldn’t have asked for more for the Redwings’ home game against Waubonsie Valley in the Class 4A Benet Sectional semifinals.
“It was electric,” Pauliukonis said. “It was a great environment to play in. Thanks to the Benet community. They all came out. I’m extremely proud of them.”
No doubt the Benet fans were proud of Pauliukonis, who scored a season-high 23 points to lead the third-seeded Redwings to a 63-45 victory over the second-seeded Warriors.
Senior point guard Blake Fagbemi had a feeling during warmups that the 6-foot-9 Pauliukonis was going to have a great game for Benet (29-5), which advances to the sectional final to play fourth-seeded Downers Grove North (26-8) at 7 p.m. Friday.
“He was hitting a lot,” Fagbemi said. “Before the game, I was telling him if we get it to him early, we’re going to have a good game.
“He got it going early. He followed that plan, and it worked out.”
That it did. Pauliukonis hit his first shot, a 3-pointer, to break a 2-2 tie and start a 10-0 run by the Redwings, who didn’t trail after that. Pauliukonis made 9 of 12 shots, including 5 of 7 from beyond the arc.
“Daniel is playing at a high level right now,” Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. “He’s really come into his own and is having an outstanding season.
“His confidence is very high, and he’s playing like it. We’re trying to get as much out of his senior year as possible.”
It would be hard for Heidkamp to get much more out of Pauliukonis or any of the other Redwings than he did against the Warriors (31-3), who got buried by a blizzard of 3-pointers and other shots.
Benet shot 69%, hitting 9 of 13 3-point attempts and 24 of 35 overall. Junior guard Jayden Wright and 7-0 junior center Colin Stack each scored 16 points on a combined 12-of-17 shooting.
Fagbemi, a Truman State commit, scored five points and took only one shot after halftime but had nine assists.
“I just make the right play,” Fagbemi said. “Just stay aggressive on the drives, and we know if we play inside-out basketball, we are going to get good shots.
“Sometimes I score. Sometimes I pass it. Whatever the defense shows us. It makes my job easier.”
And the job for opposing defenses much harder.
“The name of the game is to try to keep Blake out of the paint and creating for others, but it’s a lot harder to do in reality than theoretically,” Waubonsie Valley coach Andrew Schweitzer said. “We did a deep dive looking at the five losses that they had, and the one commonality is they didn’t shoot the three that well.
“We knew that’s one thing we had to take away, and I felt most of them were contested pretty well. But credit to Benet. They executed, and they shot the crap out of the ball.”
Senior guards Joshua Tinney and Tyreek Coleman scored 14 points and 11 points, respectively, for the Warriors, who got within 14-12 on Coleman’s turnaround jumper late in the first quarter. But Pauliukonis answered with a baseline drive to start a 12-4 run that senior guard Michael Doyle capped with a 3-pointer that gave Benet a 26-16 lead.
Tinney scored the first five points of the second half to cut the gap to 34-29, but Benet responded with a 12-0 run, capped by a Pauliukonis dunk.
“We stayed poised as a team, moved the ball,” Pauliukonis said. “All of us played well together.”
Which was impressive, especially considering the opponent. The Warriors, who set their program record for wins this season, went 58-6 over the past two seasons while winning back-to-back DuPage Valley Conference titles for the first time.
“They’re an excellent team,” Heidkamp said. “If that was not our best game, it was one of our best games.
“We played well together offensively, and I thought we really competed at a high level defensively. That was a really solid game for us on both sides of the floor.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
