Blake Fagbemi’s passing on the mark, but cold-shooting Benet loses to St. Patrick

LISLE – Blake Fagbemi electrified the Benet crowd with his soaring tip dunk a minute in Friday.

But he saved his best, and busiest, work for serving up others.

Fagbemi, a 5-foot-10 senior guard and Truman State recruit, is a dynamic athlete for his size who can do many things on the court. His passing, though, is a skill that stands out.

Fagbemi routinely finds open shooters with wraparound crosscourt passes and can thread the needle through multiple defenders to set up layups.

“I’m just playing,” Fagbemi said, “and my teammates do a good job of getting open.”

Fagbemi’s floor work was a bright spot in an otherwise uncharacteristically dull night for Benet offensively.

He assisted on 12 of the Redwings' 17 made baskets, but Benet scored a season-low in a 53-49 loss to visiting St. Patrick in the East Suburban Catholic Conference.

SIU recruit Daniel Pauliukonis had 15 points and nine rebounds, Fagbemi four points, 12 assists and seven rebounds, Jayden Wright eight points and Colin Stack six points and nine rebounds for Benet (17-3, 3-1), which shot just 30.3% (17-for-56) from the field and 7-for-35 from the 3-point line.

Pauliukonis, who was 2-for-17 from beyond the arc, missed a 3-point shot for the lead with 15 seconds left.

“We have good shooters shooting it too. Credit [St. Patrick’s] defense and our inability to make shots,” Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. “Those are shots we normally make. It was one of those days. It’s hard to win when you shoot those numbers, and on open perimeter shots.”

Senior guard E.J. Breland scored a game-high 21 points for St. Patrick (15-4, 4-1), his driving layup over the 7-foot-2 Stack giving the Shamrocks the lead for good, 49-47, with 25 seconds left.

“The defense, I don’t look at the first line of defense, I look at the second line,” Breland said. “Me getting that deep, I was confident that I would be able to finish there because of the work I put in.”

Fagbemi showcased his athleticism early with the tip dunk, and steal and dunk later in the first quarter.

But St. Patrick’s 1-3-1 zone defense limited Fagbemi to just one shot attempt the rest of the way.

“For sure, I’m definitely more about getting to the basket. Zone, it’s harder to get to the basket,” Fagbemi said. “I was just relying on my teammates. I knew if I got in the gaps, my teammates would be open for easier shots.”

Heidkamp knows by now he can count on Fagbemi to find those openings.

Fagbemi twice found Stack on lob dunks in the third quarter, the second time from near halfcourt, to send Benet into the fourth quarter ahead 38-37.

Fagbemi’s steal near midcourt and clever wraparound pass to Edvardas Stasys with 1:20 left closed Benet to within 47-46.

“Blake is a great player. We have relied on him a lot this year, and he generates a lot of offense for us,” Heidkamp said. “It’s not just him generating offense – he rebounds the ball, we ask a lot of him defensively and he creates shots for us.

“The way their defense was, there wasn’t a lot of looks for Blake but he did a good job of getting our guys looks.”

All in the day’s work for Fagbemi, quick to credit the guys at the other end of those passes. Fagbemi did turn it over twice in the fourth quarter.

“The people around me are just great,” Fagbemi said. “They space the floor well. It makes my job easier just to find the open man.”

Wright’s steal and score sent Benet into halftime ahead 25-23, but St. Patrick surged ahead out of the break. Breland was the catalyst, knocking down four 3-pointers after missing his first five attempts.

“I don’t worry about it if shots don’t fall,” Breland said. “In the first half, wasn’t falling, so I chose another route, getting teammates involved. I knew my shots would fall eventually.”

Heidkamp likely feels the same way about his group, which has a busy week ahead. Benet plays five games over a nine-day period with St. Laurence Saturday at Homewood-Flossmoor, Bolingbrook Monday at New Trier and Rich back at Benet next Saturday.

“We will bounce back, and we have to bounce back,” Heidkamp said. “You want to learn from a loss.”