While the boys basketball team took the one hour and twenty minute trip down to Pontiac, Illinois, to play in the Pontiac Holiday Tournament over Christmas break, the girls’ hoops’ team stayed a little closer to home. The Lady Redwings took their talents to Lombard to participate in the prestigious annual Montini Holiday Tournament.

The girls got to work bright and early easily defeating Huntley 65-37 in the opening round of the four-day tournament.

Waiting for the Wings in the next round was a familiar foe. The Fremd Vikings, who the girls’ program has beaten in the past two years in the state championship, were licking their chops to get another shot at knocking off Benet. Although trailing by 17 points late in the third quarter, the team was able to claw back and pull out to a victory thanks to a Lauren Stack (‘19) layup with eight seconds to go in the fourth to give Benet a 62-60 lead.

The win set up a match with Rolling Meadows. Holding a 50-41 lead with 33 seconds left in the 4th quarter, the Mustangs made things interesting cutting the lead to 51-47 and drained a three-pointer as time expired to make the game 51-50 in the Redwings’ favor.

The Lady Redwings were rolling and set up a rematch of last year’s holiday tournament championship with the Montini Broncos.

Safe to say, it wasn’t Benet’s night. The Broncos came out with a chip on their shoulder and displayed why they are one of the top programs in the state. The girls’ struggled on the offensive side of the ball being held to a season low 43 points in the loss. They placed second at the Montini tournament.

Since the Montini game, the Lady Redwings’ are 4-1. The girls have put together wins against Rockford Lutheran, state-ranked Bradley Bourbonnais, Nazareth and Downers Grove South by an average margin of victory of 18.3 points. The lone loss came to conference rival Marist who is currently at the top of the ESCC.

With the rigorous regular season schedule, the girls’ feel prepared for another state run. Do not sleep on this team in March.

Go Redwings!