Aurora area ready for playoffs

Whatever may kill you will make you stronger.

Considering the ambitious schedule Benet has navigated through at different points of this season, why should the upcoming postseason be any different?

In a season that has seen it win the prestigious Proviso West Tournament, defeat Glenbard East at the Sears Centre, win a second straight East Suburban Catholic Conference title and with top-ranked and undefeated Simeon, the defending Class 4A state champions, next up on the docket on Saturday, the road Benet will need to take to Peoria beginning March 2 will have its share of challenges.

Just to have an opportunity to secure the program's second straight sectional crown on March 11 over at East Aurora, the top-seeded Redwings might need to rely on all their vast pressure-laden experiences by defeating a pair of teams on their respective home floors.

Benet opens the postseason opposite either Plainfield East or Geneva in a Class 4A Naperville North Regional Semifinal, where the hosting Huskies may be awaiting in a potential regional final on March 4.

From there, all that might be put in front of them is a potential second straight playoff matchup with East Aurora-whom the Redwings defeated 72-60 a year ago in a Neuqua Valley Sectional Semifinal---in the first of two East Aurora Sectional Semifinals on March 8.

"The path is definitely not easy," Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. "Our sectional is really strong from top-to-bottom. Obviously, having to beat teams on their home floors isn't an easy task. So we would have to be on the top of our game to advance in the sectional."

Prior to getting eliminated by the Redwings, East Aurora sent home the school that many thought would take Benet's place as a sectional champion last year---Neuqua Valley.

Counting the 76-68 defeat the Tomcats handed them in last season's Class 4A Plainfield East Regional Final, the Wildcats have dropped three straight to East Aurora, Connecticut-bound guard Ryan Boatright and company, including both meetings this season-the second of which saw them blow an 11-point halftime lead in a 78-71 loss on Thursday.

Before Neuqua, the sectional's sixth seed, can concern itself with a possible third matchup with the Tomcats, a victory over either Metea Valley or its regional's host, Bolingbrook, will be required.

While Benet is far and away the premier team in the area and holder of burdening expectations of a long postseason journey, one of its possible roadblocks---No. 9 Naperville North---is just worried about getting better.

"We're a team that can look as ugly as we did (in a 51-42 loss at Naperville Central Feb. 11) and play as good as we did against West Aurora (in a 52-51 home victory on Feb. 9)," said Huskies' coach Jeff Powers, whose team lost 62-41 at Benet on Dec. 7 and will play Oswego in its first playoff game March 2. "It's the mystery I have to figure out and our guys have to figure out, so that we can be consistent for a couple games."

While the Huskies will have the comfort of playing in their own gym, their crosstown rivals-Naperville Central-will be off to Glenbard East for its regional play.

Pete Kramer's 19th-seeded Redhawks will tangle with conference foe Wheaton North, whom they already have beaten once, a 58-52 victory Jan. 8, on Feb. 28 in a play-in game in Lombard.

But the two teams' second regular-season meeting comes this Friday in Wheaton, which leaves Kramer and his staff in an unique situation.

"I thought about that a little bit," he said. "How much we want to show, what we want to do? But I just we're gonna go out and play (Friday). We're just gonna go out and battle. I think we want to win the game.

"We don't want to lose to them and then, all of a sudden, give them an edge or something. It is what it is."

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