Lindsay Harzich ‘rock steady,’ leads Benet to big win at Nazareth

LA GRANGE PARK – Senior guard Lindsay Harzich is as close to a sure bet as Benet has this season.

The Brown recruit is playing better than ever in her third varsity season and nobody appreciates her effort more than Benet coach Joe Kilbride.

“Lindsay is huge,” Kilbride said. “Lindsay has been just rock steady for us.

“I don’t know what she’s averaging, but she’s probably double digits every game. She’s doing it efficiently and you can count on it.

“That’s the thing - if you can count on it - and with Lindsay it really feels like we can. She’s giving it to us all the time.”

Harzich did it again Saturday in helping the Redwings give it to host Nazareth. She had 12 points and a game-high four steals as Benet won the key East Suburban Catholic Conference game 66-49.

“I think I’m playing really good,” Harzich said. “I just block out all the other noises, play my game, support my teammates.”

Harzich scored the first and last baskets – both 3-pointers – of an opening 26-10 run that stunned the Roadrunners (8-2, 1-1), who rarely lose anywhere, let alone at home.

As good as the Redwings (9-1, 2-0) were offensively in the early going, it was their full-court pressure defense that set everything else in motion. They forced 21 turnovers, 12 of which were the result of steals.

“Coach always tells us to stay right in the middle,” Harzich said. “We knew there were going to be ups and downs during the game and we knew that we had to keep staying aggressive offensively and defensively.

“I feel like really getting after them in our full-court press helped, because that gives us a lot of energy and momentum to go onto our offense.”

That’s usually the recipe Nazareth uses to beat opponents. Not this time.

“We knew the press was going to be the difference,” Nazareth coach Ed Stritzel said. “With Benet everything feeds off their press.

“We thought we were prepared, but there’s a big difference between practice and game and we didn’t stick to the game plan and rushed ourselves and got ourselves sped up. They put us in a lot of bad spots and I thought our inexperience really showed.

“This probably as big of a beating that we’ve taken.”

And yet the Roadrunners still nearly got off the mat. Consecutive baskets by Stella Sakalas, Sophia Towne and Lyla Shelton cut the gap to 34-33 at the 5:05 mark of the third quarter.

But Benet responded immediately when Ava Mersinger dished one of her game-high six assists to Harzich, then found Aria Mazza for a 3-pointer. Mazza followed by feeding Harzich for a turnaround jumper in the lane to boost the lead to 41-33 and the Redwings never looked back.

“It’s been a couple years since we beat Naz, so that was nice,” Kilbride said. “Our pressure was great. I thought our half-court defense was really good, too.”

Bridget Rifenburg tallied a team-high 14 points to go with three rebounds, two assists and two steals while defending Sakalas, who finished with a game-high 15 points and nine rebounds. Mazza and Emma Briggs each scored 13 for Benet, with Briggs adding eight rebounds and two assists. Allia Von Schlegell scored 12 points and Towne had nine for Nazareth.

“It was really good,” Harzich said of Benet’s performance. “I still think we have a lot to work on, so that’s not even our best.

“We’re going to keep getting better, so it’s really exciting to see this step in our process.”