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Chicago Tribune
11-03-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Benet's Mac Doyle follows in cousin Kathleen's footsteps, one arena at a time, but ‘nothing has come easy'
Mac Doyle was in second grade when he first set foot in Illinois State's CEFCU Arena in Normal in 2015. Mac Doyle watched his cousin Kathleen lead the Benet girls basketball team to its first state title. A year later, both were back as the Redwings repeated. 'The only thing I remember is the student section and imagining one day I wanted to be in that student section because that's how awesome it was,' Mac Doyle said. 'I just remember the atmosphere here, and of course I remember Kathleen.' Mac Doyle was back at CEFCU Arena on Monday, but he wasn't in the student section. The senior guard was in the starting lineup for the Benet boys basketball team and contributed four points, three rebounds, two assists and a steal in its 58-50 win against Quincy in the Class 4A ISU Supersectional. Among those in attendance were Kathleen Doyle, who is director of recruiting and player personnel for the Virginia Tech women's basketball team, and former Benet great and NBA player Frank Kaminsky. Also present was Mac Doyle's mother Cara, who two days earlier had coached the St. Ignatius girls basketball team in the Class 3A state championship game at CEFCU Arena. The Wolfpack lost to Montini 50-44 but won its first state trophy. 'We had a huge support section of Doyles,' Mac Doyle said. 'There's so many of us. We're all from Benet. We all support each other. You couldn't ask for anything else.' Playing on the same court as Kathleen Doyle's greatest high school achievement was surreal for him. 'It was such a great opportunity,' Mac Doyle said. 'It is an awesome environment. 'We had so many fans come out, so grateful for them, and we've been playing the big games all year. Not as big as this one, but we've been playing against some top teams across the state all year, so our coaches really prepared us for this.' Mac Doyle had long prepared for this moment with the Redwings (31-5), who will play Evanston (30-5) at the State Farm Center in Champaign at 6 p.m. Friday in their second appearance in the state semifinals in three years. He is the unlikeliest of starters, having seen no playing time as a junior. 'Mac has earned everything he's gotten,' Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. 'Nothing has come easy for him. 'He's a great leader. He's a great teammate. He's a really good basketball player. I've coached for 32 years, and there's not many finer people that I've been around than Mac Doyle. He's that good of a person.' Mac Doyle plays a vital if overlooked role. 'I can't even express it,' Benet junior guard Jayden Wright said. 'He's huge. We wouldn't even be close to the team we are without him. He might not score, but he brings everything else. He's a very valuable asset.' Mac Doyle's contributions come mainly on defense. 'He does all the work no one else wants to do,' Benet senior guard Blake Fagbemi said. 'He's on the best player every night, and that leads to much of our team's success.' Benet twice held Quincy scoreless for more than five minutes. Mac Doyle hit his only shot — a 3-pointer — to give Benet an 8-0 lead, but he focused mainly on defending. 'I really figured out that defensively is somewhere I can get on the court on a team full of offensive talent,' he said. 'I'm just really grateful for the opportunity. 'I think that Benet more than anything is great at player development, especially with guys that are not getting a lot of run. We have a ton of JV games. We have a bunch of coaches on staff that are awesome, and so that really provided me with the opportunity I needed to develop my game.' It is a game perfectly suited to Benet's needs. While Fagbemi and Wright handle a lot of the scoring, Mac Doyle elevates the role of the unsung role player to new heights. 'He's like everything you could ever want,' Wright said. 'He's selfless. He'll do anything to help the team. He's just put in a lot of work, and it's finally starting to show off. I'm so proud of him. I just love him.' The Redwings' final two games will be played at the State Farm Center, where Kathleen Doyle made three appearances for Iowa. So Mac Doyle gets to follow in her footsteps once again. 'I'm just excited for the whole experience,' he said. 'I'm trying to make the most out of every moment. 'I know the teams down there are going to be great, but I think we've got a pretty good team too.'
Chicago Tribune
11-03-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Benet needs free throws, not 3-pointers, from Jayden Wright in supersectional. ‘Confident,' he comes through.
NORMAL, Illinois — Everyone knows about Benet junior guard Jayden Wright's 3-point shooting prowess by now. But beyond the arc isn't the only area where Wright is proficient. Take free-throw shooting. Might he be the Redwings' best shooter from the line? 'Yeah, I would say so,' Benet senior point guard Blake Fagbemi said. 'We practice free throws all the time, and he's a natural shooter, so free throws come along with that.' But Wright had never shot so many and with such accuracy as he did Monday night. He scored a game-high 21 points, including a 14-for-15 effort from the line, to lead the Redwings to a 58-50 victory over favored Quincy in the Class 4A ISU Supersectional at CEFCU Arena in Normal. 'He was great,' Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. 'I didn't realize it was 14 of 15, but Jayden is an experienced kid. 'Even though he's only a junior, he's played in a lot of big games. He stepped up in a big game and made it count, so I'm proud of him.' The Redwings (31-5), who will play Evanston (30-5) in the state semifinals at the State Farm Center in Champaign at 6 p.m. Friday, led Quincy (31-4) wire to wire. They jumped out to a 9-0 lead and led by as many as 13 points on the strength of terrific defense that twice held the Blue Devils scoreless for nearly six minutes. Senior forward Daniel Pauliukonis, a Southern Illinois recruit, had 17 points and six rebounds for Benet. Fagbemi, a Truman State commit, added 14 points, eight rebounds and five assists. But as their lead shrank in the final minutes, the Redwings most often got the ball in Wright's hands, not Fagbemi's. While the din in the arena got ever louder, there was only silence in Wright's head. 'To be honest, when I'm at the free-throw line, I don't really hear anything,' he said. 'It's just me. It's all about focus and all the work I've put in. I feel confident shooting them.' The Redwings felt confident after Wright's two free throws gave them a 45-32 cushion with 2:29 remaining. They stayed that way even as Quincy senior guard Bradley Longcor, a Santa Clara recruit, scored 10 of his team-high 17 points in the final 2:16, including two free throws that cut Benet's lead to 53-50 with 31.6 seconds left. 'We're always confident,' Wright said. 'We're never going to play not to lose. We're always going to play to win, play aggressive. We're never going to get tight.' If ever there was a time for Wright to get tight, it was when the Blue Devils fouled him immediately after Longcor's free throws. Wright calmly made both foul shots. Pauliukonis followed with a steal and passed to Wright, who was fouled and sank another pair of free throws with 19.1 seconds left. That made it 57-50 and sealed the game, just as Fagbemi knew the Redwings would do. 'We had to stay calm,' Fagbemi said. 'We knew that if we put one or two stops together that eventually we were going to push out that lead.' That's been a theme for the Redwings this season. They usually find a way to do what needs to be done. 'We're a really experienced team,' Wright said. 'We've played in almost every game you could play, and now we're doing pretty much the same thing every day. So we feel like we've been through every situation that we could have been through up to this point.' The victory earned the Redwings their ninth trip to the state finals and fourth under Heidkamp. But it will be the first semifinal appearance for everyone on the roster. 'It always feels great,' Heidkamp said. 'I'm happy for our kids. 'It's been a long year, and for the kids to get this opportunity I think says a lot about them. It's always nice to get down, but you always think about the kids that are involved and the opportunity to experience this for them.' The prospect of that experience is what drove the Redwings against Quincy. 'We played our butts off,' Wright said. 'We knew that could have been our last game. We didn't want it to be our last game, so we left it all out there. 'The coaches prepared us really well, we had a good game plan, and we went out there and executed it.'
