Lafayette’s Tyrai Skeen face planted three times Monday night and smiled about it.

In the Fighting Irish’s 52-37 win against Benton at Springer Gymnasium, Lafayette started slowly in the first 3 minutes while coming off the Irish’s close victory against Cameron on Friday night in a hostile environment until Skeen, Lafayette’s spark plug, came off the bench.

He caused a turnover on Benton’s first offensive possession with him in the game after tipping a pass then earned his first face plant of the night. He dived on a ball then tapped it off to a teammate.

“It’s what I do best, playing defense,” Skeen said. “Coach says I do the best job coming off the bench getting the energy and defense up.”

Skeen tore a ligament in his hip joint during the semifinal of the Kearney tournament, which has limited him to practicing only three-quarters of practice right now. The first week after the injury, he barely practiced wearing jeans and working on layups, but he missed only one game. But in the games, Skeen is all energy, all the time — even with the injury still hurting.

“If I practice for too long, it starts to feel like it’s going to tear again,” Skeen said. “In the game, I don’t worry about it too much.”

On offense, Skeen isn’t smooth. He doesn’t have the perfect bounce pass and often gets nervous when he finds himself out front on a breakaway after one of his steals — and gets big eyes. He says he can dunk and wants to do it in a game sometime. That doesn’t bother Skeen too much, because he know’s what his role is on the team, even sacrificing a starting position to come off the bench.

Instead he high-fives every player introduced at the end of the reserve and cheerleader tunnel.

“Anything you get from Tyrai on the offensive end is gravy on top,” Lafayette coach Chris Neff said.

Skeen played more than normal against the Cardinals (4-18) after guard Tim Nelson picked up three quick fouls and spent most of the first half on the bench. Every time Skeen entered the game, he created havoc on defense, tipping passes, jumping after loose balls and grabbing a tough rebound after weaving through two Benton players to grab the ball.

The Irish (16-6) went on an 11-1 run in the second quarter after a Chris Young jump shot pulled the Cardinals within one. Young scored seven points in the third quarter when the Cardinals cut the Irish lead to four but then Lafayette’s Taylor Deayon hit an open 3-point shot to extend the lead, and Benton never made another run. Young, a quick left-handed sophomore, led the Cardinals with 14 points.

“The team did a good job of getting me open,” Young said. “I’ve been working on my right hand and my pull-up jump shot.”

Benton coach Ron Tyler was impressed how his team fought back in the game cutting the lead to only four points.

“We’re steadily getting there,” Tyler said. “We had that little meltdown, and they did what good teams do.

“But for us, the effort and the execution was there.”

Neff praised the job Tyler has done and is keeping an eye on the Cardinals for districts.

“They’ve been getting better, and they could be a really scary team for districts,” Neff said.

Deayon led the Irish with 21 points in a typical night for him. Those performances are typical because Deayon knows every small detail about how the Irish work and can list off a scouting report of many of the local players. But for Skeen, basketball is one of his many sports.

“Tyrai is just all energy all the time. They’re different players,” Neff said. “Taylor Deayon is thinking about basketball 365 days.

“(Skeen) is a P.E. Legend in all sports.”