Michael O’Brien’s notebook: Dec. 2, 2018

The Hinsdale Central pairings were announced right as I was leaving the Ridgewood shootout tonight. It’s always exciting to see the first holiday tournament bracket. We are just a few weeks away from high school basketball madness.

The top four seeds are DePaul Prep, Oswego East, Homewood-Flossmoor and Marian Catholic. The overall field is deep. Glenbrook North, Richards, Willowbrook, Stevenson, Lincoln Park, St. Charles East, Maine South Westinghouse aren’t ranked but are off to very strong starts.

The Proviso West pairings are out on Saturday and Pontiac on Sunday. Not sure when Wheeling, York and the Big Dipper will be released.

Sunday’s top games

No. 14 Benet 67, DeKalb 59: I’ve been hearing some serious hype on the Redwings the past two weeks, they’ve really been impressing people. The Barbs provided a very stern test on Sunday at Ridgewood. DeKalb led at halftime and for the first half of the fourth quarter.

Benet took the lead for good on Colin Crothers’ three-point play with 2:35 to play. Crothers was a total rock for the Redwings. The 6-8 junior had 25 points and 14 rebounds, shot 11-for-13. Kendrick Tchoua added 15 points and five boards. He had a rough game at the line, shooting just 3-for-10. Will Engles had 10 points and eight boards.

Benet has a lot of ways to score and really good size. Every single one of DeKalb’s 30 points in the first half came on a three-pointer. The Barbs were 15-for-28 from three-point range in the game. I’m not sure I’ve seen a team make 15 threes and lose the game.

Senior Jordan Williams scored 18 and sophomore Trenton Kyler had 17 for the Barbs.

No. 8 St. Viator 63, De La Salle 49: Jeremiah Hernandez has taken a major step forward. St. Viator’s 6-4 senior is playing like a killer. He dominated stretches of the game and finished with 26 points and five boards and only missed three shots. Trey Calvin was excellent as well with 25 points and 11 rebounds.

The game was much closer than the final score. De La Salle only trailed by two at halftime, this is probably the best Meteors team I’ve seen in a few years. Don’t be surprised if they pull off some big wins this season. Jones transfer Josh Holmes led the way with 17 points.

Maine South 67, Ridgewood 44: I had to write tomorrow’s story for print and do the rankings during this one, so stats courtesy of Scott Burgess. Fillip Bulatovic led the Hawks with 17 points and Essam Hamwi added 16. Enes Prijic led the hosts with 14.

St. Patrick 58, Joliet West 42: Austin Freeman scored 17 for the Shamrocks and big man Joe Fanning did all kinds of damage with 16 points. The young Tigers looked as inexperienced as they are. Steve Aragones led Joliet with 11.