Boys Basketball: Boatright, Tomcats Knock Off Top-Ranked Benet

AURORA – East Aurora senior Ryan Boatright has had visions of leading the Tomcats to the state tournament, which hasn’t happened since his father Mike McCallister’s senior year in 1992, for four years.

Facing the state’s top-ranked team, 29-0 Benet Academy, was not going to faze him with his high school career on the line in Tuesday’s Class 4A East Aurora Sectional semifinal.

The UConn recruit put on another dazzling show, leading the Tomcats to a 60-52 win by pouring in a game-high 29 points. The fourth-seeded Tomcats will face either Downers Grove South or Glenbard East in Friday’s sectional title game.

“I want to fulfill my dream of going to state,” Boatright said. “We knew we couldn’t get over hyped because we were playing the No. 1 team in the state. They weren’t No. 1 for no reason. We came in here and were focused and got a big win.”

East (23-6) certainly didn’t look scared of their nationally ranked opponents early on. Playing in front of their home crowd, the Tomcats trailed only briefly, 6-5, in the first half. They closed the half out on a 15-2 run to take a 35-21 lead into the break. Boatright started the run with a three-pointer and a driving lay-up, but with the Redwings’ defense focusing on him, he found John Williams for three consecutive three-pointers that blew the game open.

“That was the key to the game,” East coach Wendell Jeffries said. “We had a lot of presses and things in the game plan, but once we got up like that, it’s probably the first time in the 10 years I’ve been here that East Aurora didn’t press. We had a nice lead.”

Boatright’s three two minutes into the third pushed the lead to a game-high 17 points, 40-23, before Benet started to mount its inevitable comeback. After yet another Boatright three-pointer set the lead at 47-33 for East, Benet went on its own 15-2 run to slice the lead to 49-48 with 3:38 left in the fourth.

But Benet managed only four more points the rest of the way and were never able to regain the lead that they held for only mere seconds in the first quarter, ending their magical run at 29-1.

“We had numerous possessions where we could have tied the game or taken the lead and we just couldn’t get the ball to drop,” Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. “That was the story of the game down the stretch. That’s just the way it goes. I wouldn’t pin it on one shot or possession.”

The loss also signaled the end of the brilliant careers of Frank Kaminsky and Dave Sobolewski, along with the rest of Benet’s senior class. In the past two years, they helped bring the program back to a level it had not been at since the mid-1980s.

“There are a lot of tears being shed in there, and I don’t think anybody is embarrassed about that,” Heidkamp said. “You could imagine how it is after winning 29 games in a row. These kids have done so much for our program and our school. It meant so much to them. This is not where they wanted it to end, but this is another life lesson. They’re just incredible kids, I can’t say enough about them.”

For the Tomcats, it’s the second time in Jeffries’ 10 years as head coach that they reached the sectional finals. They were knocked out by Northwestern star John Shurna and Glenbard West in 2004. They haven’t won a sectional crown since 1999.

“Hopefully we can do a little bit better, but this is huge for the program,” Jeffries said. “Hopefully this is just another step.”

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