Ashley Berry provided a spark off the bench Monday night for Benet.
That was the good news.
The bad news was the Redwings shouldn’t have been in the position of needing energy from the sophomore guard.
Berry scored all five of her points in the first half against Maine West in Coach Kipp’s Hoopsfest at Willowbrook. That tied her for team lead at the time with starting guard Clara Prasse.
That surprising fact proved ominous for Benet, which faded after a frenetic first quarter and lost 57-35.
It was the Redwings’ worst margin of defeat since Joe Kilbride became head coach, one point more than last year’s 59-38 supersectional loss to Edwardsville.
“(Maine West is) a good team,” said Kilbride, whose career record dropped to 112-15. “I told the kids this was going to be a big-girl game and they played big-girl ball. We didn’t.”
That wasn’t Berry’s fault. She sank a 17-foot jumper late in the first quarter and took a cross-court pass from Kendall Holmes and drained a 3-pointer early in the second quarter.
Both baskets pulled the Redwings (18-4) within three points.
“Whenever I get my minutes, I just put forth my best effort and help the team in whatever way I can so we can get a win,” Berry said.
Berry is one of the reasons why Kilbride said this is the deepest team he has coached.
“Ashley started a few games until (Denver recruit) Tsimba (Malonga) came back and she was giving us good energy,” Kilbride said. “She plays hard.
“We didn’t have enough people playing hard consistently and they did.”
Indeed, Maine West (20-1) responded to Berry’s second basket with a 15-3 burst to go up 37-22 early in the third quarter. The Redwings, whose previous three losses were by a combined 12 points, never got closer than 13 after that.
“They’re tough and I think they just outworked us,” Berry said of Maine West. “We relied on talent, but we need to push and work harder.”
Rachel Kent scored a game-high 15 points for the Warriors, who also got 14 points from Army-bound Alisa Fallon and 13 points from 6-foot-3 sophomore center Angela Dugalic.
Malonga, who returned from a knee injury to score 14 points in Saturday’s 59-55 victory over Nazareth, and Lauren Stack paced Benet with six points each. Prasse added five points and seven rebounds.
Stack and fellow forward Brooke Schramek were limited by foul trouble and Malonga shot 1-for-10.
“We just didn’t show up to play,” Prasse said. “They outworked and outhustled us.
“We’re going to start working much harder in practice. We need to pick up the tempo, pick up the intensity and the aggression.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
