Boys basketball: Christian Benning-led Streator holds off upset-minded Peotone 52-42

STREATOR – Christian Benning, Streator’s junior point guard, is usually good for a couple of midcourt steals and layups going the other way per game.

In Friday’s win over the Peotone Blue Devils, Benning had four of them – plus another steal where he got tripped up going for the ensuing layup – leading to nine points, all at the ends of quarters of the Streator Bulldogs’ closer-than-the-score-indicates 52-42 Illinois Central Eight Conference victory.

“I’m just looking for a time when they’re weak with the ball and going for it,” Benning said of his midcourt thievery. “And I try to pick ‘em clean, the best that I can.

“[End-of-quarter steals and buckets] give us a lot of energy.”

The win lifts the Bulldogs to 11-9 overall and 7-2 on the ICE loop, tied again at the top with Reed-Custer, which suffered a 48-47 upset at the hands of Manteno on Friday.

“I thought we defended better, but we turned the ball over a lot both games [against Streator],” Peotone coach Ron Oloffson said. “That was the biggest factor in why we lost both games. We defended better. Was it good enough? It was not, but we did defend them better and fought. We just turned it over too much. [Benning’s] really good at it.”

Benning’s fourth and final pick/layup combo just before time expired was an exclamation point on a game the Bulldogs led from the second quarter on, despite missing their first seven shots, but didn’t put away until the final minutes.

It was another example, like Tuesday’s overtime loss at Lisle, of how the second time through the ICE schedule will be more challenging than the first, when Streator won its first six league games, including a 32-point triumph over Peotone in early December.

“That’s something you can preach as a coach, but until you experience it, you’re not ready for it,” Bulldogs coach Beau Doty said. “It was nice for us to gut one out and make plays, make shots, down the stretch when we needed to.

“We have some guys who have some big-moment mentalities. And if we can close three straight quarters with Christian getting runout layups, that doesn’t hurt.”

Benning’s numbers on the stat sheet dominated every bit as much as the 6-2 junior point guard did on the court. He finished with game highs in points scored (25), rebounds (10), assists (four) and steals (four), backed by nine points from Cade Peterson, five apiece courtesy of Logan Aukland and second-quarter sparkplug Zander McCloskey, and a four-point, three-steal showing from Nolan Lukach.

With the 25 points, Benning now has 948 for his varsity career, putting him in range of reaching 1,000 next week and moving him to ninth in school history, just ahead of 1928 graduate Virgil “Fatso” Dixon’s 938 and behind late 1980s/early 1990s star Rodney Pence’s 950.

Benning’s steal-fueled five-point burst before the half put the Bulldogs ahead 25-18 at the break, closing out a 7-0 run that started with an Aukland bucket off a nice-look Peterson assist to break an 18-18 tie, the last of the game, with 1:35 to go before the break.

Peterson added two momentum-capturing 3s in the third quarter, with Benning scoring half of Streator’s 16 points to carry a 41-35 advantage into the fourth. The Blue Devils refused to be shaken, fighting as close as three points on two occasions – 41-38 after a Brandon Weiss jumper with 6:20 remaining and 43-40 on a Miles Heflin bucket with 5:35 to go – but were held scoreless the final 3:45 while Streator received two Matt Williamson free throws and two final field goals from Benning.

“Any win in the conference at this point of the season is a good win,” Doty said.

Heflin finished with 20 points and seven rebounds to lead Peotone, which outshot Streator 45% (18 of 40) to 40% (20 of 50), but lost the turnover battle 20-10.

Before the game, Streator, which is back in action Saturday at old NCIC rival Rochelle, honored longtime assistant coach Harry Park for his 41 years serving as a coach in the Bulldogs program.