Benet point guard Blake Fagbemi was a solid player as the sixth man for a team that won a Class 4A regional title last season.
Fagbemi’s teammates have watched the 6-foot-1 senior improve dramatically since then.
“Blake has gotten so much better than he was last year,” Benet junior center Colin Stack said. “The day our season ended last year, he was in the gym with me that day working out. So he’s gotten a lot stronger, and that led to him gaining more confidence.”
Fagbemi, whose older brother Brayden led the Redwings to the 4A state championship game in 2023 and is the starting point guard for Central Arkansas, is averaging 13.0 points, 7.0 assists and 5.5 rebounds this season. Usually a pass-first facilitator, Fagbemi obviously can score, too, and Benet coach Gene Heidkamp calls him a “freak rebounder.”
“He’s had a really good season,” Heidkamp said. “He’s just physically strong and athletic for his size. He can do some things athletically that a lot of people his size can’t do.”
Fagbemi, a Truman State commit, put much of that on display against Rich Township in Benet’s packed gym on Saturday. He racked up 22 points, 11 rebounds and six assists — leading all players in each category — as the Redwings rolled to a 73-56 victory in the When Sides Collide shootout.
The Raptors tried to deny Fagbemi open passing lanes, but that strategy failed spectacularly. He scored on three straight drives to the basket in the early going, and the last one resulted in a three-point play that gave the Redwings (20-4) an 11-3 lead.
“They were up in my grill the whole game, so I took advantage of the space they were giving me and got to the basket,” Fagbemi said. “The floor was open, my teammates were doing a good job of opening space, so we took what the defense gave us.”
Rich Township (14-6) cut the lead to 38-34 by halftime, but the Redwings came out on fire in the third quarter. Fagbemi scored the last five points of the quarter and then scored on another strong drive early in the fourth quarter to give Benet a 65-45 cushion.
It was a signature win for the Redwings, who had lost two of their past four games, albeit against two tough opponents, St. Patrick and Bolingbrook.
“This is a huge win,” Stack said. “Last week, we got a little reality check by losing to Pat’s. We didn’t shoot well, but they beat us, so it really came down to more do we want to go for individual stats or do we want to win games. At that point, we decided to sacrifice stats.”
Fagbemi had the best of both worlds against the Raptors, coming close to a triple-double.
“We’ve got a good group,” Heidkamp said. “When they play together, the pieces really fit, and Blake’s a huge part of that.
“He creates a lot of shots for our team, not only for himself but the other guys, and he’s not afraid. He’s got a lot of toughness. He wants the ball, and he wants to make plays, and he did a lot for us tonight.”
Stack, who contributed 15 points, nine rebounds and five blocks, was often on the receiving end of Fagbemi’s passes.
“He’s really worked on his handle and changing heights and changing paces,” Stack said. “He’s very good about throwing the passes and knowing when to throw them.”
That makes Fagbemi a popular teammate.
“It’s very fun playing with him,” Stack said. “It’s not just a one-way thing where he can only do this on offense. He can also play defense. He’s a huge contributor to our defense. If he wasn’t there sometimes, we would be leaving people wide open.”
Fagbemi, though, shares the credit as easily as he shares the ball.
“During the summer, we got really good,” he said. “We were playing with each other really well, so when you’ve got a great group of guys around you, it’s easy to play. Our confidence is really high right now.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
