Barret Benson attempts a shot in the lane. The freshman center's role has increased since sophomore center Dererk Pardon injured his hand Nov. 28.

In the first seven games of Northwestern’s season, freshman center Barret Benson played just 15 minutes total.

In the last six — the six since starting sophomore center Dererk Pardon went down with a hand injury — Benson has played 92 minutes, including 19 in Thursday’s win over Houston Baptist.

He hasn’t been a big difference-maker, but Benson has gradually showed improvement as he’s adjusted to the college game, and that new comfort level could indeed make a big difference for the Wildcats’ depth entering the start of Big Ten play next week.

“It’ll be great to get (Pardon) back and get him back into the swing of things, but the fact now that Barret’s had this stretch of games where he’s gotten a lot of minutes I think has been really good,” coach Chris Collins said.

Against Houston Baptist, Benson appeared to take another step forward. He drained a jumper just 14 seconds in, and later helped spark NU’s comeback in the first three minutes of the second half by pulling down three offensive rebounds and assisting on baskets by sophomore forward Vic Law and junior guard Bryant McIntosh.

Once the Cats had claimed a 50-46 advantage, the 6-foot-10, 240-pound center recorded two critical defensive rebounds to protect the lead.

Throughout the night, Benson — who, earlier in the fall, often appeared uncertain what to do and awkward when involved in plays — demonstrated a newfound confidence in his role in NU’s offensive and defensive systems and was noticeably mobile and active.

“He’s just getting more comfortable. He’s an energy guy, which is great,” Collins said. “Early in the second half, I thought his plays kind of got us back in the game. He dug out some offensive rebounds, he got a blocked shot, he was really battling their big kid. I thought he did a great job tonight (and) these last two games.”

The statistics still don’t jump off the page: Benson is averaging only 2.4 points and 2.2 rebounds per game.

But they’re rising nonetheless. In two games this week, the Willowbrook native recorded 10 rebounds and seven points in addition to seven blocks and four assists, more than doubling his career-to-date totals in those two latter categories.

With their conference slate opening on Dec. 27, the Cats will face a number of bigger, more physical opponents. And with the health status of Pardon still in question, Benson’s emergence provides a much-needed depth option to the rotation.

“There’s going to be fouls down there, there’s going to be guys getting tired, so to add another big guy that can come in and play with confidence and bang (around) … is great,” Collins said. “Hopefully when we look back on this last month or so of what it meant for our team, it was us finding another guy in Barret.”

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Twitter: @benpope111

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