Dartmouth recruit Niko Abusara, set to be Benet’s first Ivy League player, learned from Sandburg’s Tommy Demogerontas

Benet guard Niko Abusara is about to make history.

So it might be surprising to know that he doesn’t come from a family with an extensive basketball background.

“It really came from my neighbor,” Abusara said. “Ever since I was a kid, he’d knock on the door and say, ‘Let’s play one-on-one,’ and we would play one-on-one every single day — in the summer, spring, you name it.”

The neighbor was Tommy Demogerontas, the former Sandburg star who later played at Northern Illinois and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The 6-foot-8 Demogerontas, who plays professionally in Argentina, towered over Abusara, who is 8 years younger and, up until a couple of years ago, was a foot shorter.

“I just started falling in love with the game just from competing against him,” Abusara said. “Then I started playing against kids my age, and it was kind of easier.”

Abusara is hard to play against these days. The 6-foot-5 senior is a matchup problem for opponents with his well-rounded arsenal of skills, which will take him to the Division I level.

Abusara recently committed to Dartmouth. He will be the first player in program history to play in the Ivy League.

“It is something special,” Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said. “We’ve had a lot of kids go to high-academic schools. This is the first basketball player that we’ve had that is playing basketball in the Ivy League.

“It’s nice to see his hard work paying off. He’s going to get to play basketball at a very high level and go to one of the best schools in the world.”

Abusara had offers from Brown, Marshall and Radford before Dartmouth came calling. Dartmouth assistant Dan Ryan had recruited Abusara while coaching at Illinois-Chicago and was instrumental in landing him.

“During the fall, at least three of their coaches came to our open gyms,” Abusara said. “Dartmouth was my last offer, and they recruited me really well, and obviously it’s a great school. What more can you ask for?”

Even now, Abusara is still a little stunned about being a pioneer for the Redwings.

“It’s actually surreal to think about me being the only person to come out of Benet Academy and play in the Ivy League,” he said. “It means a lot to me, but a lot of great players came from here, like (Frank) Kaminsky and (Dave) Sobolewski.”

Abusara, an Orland Park resident, makes the 35-minute commute to Benet every day, often arriving early to practice before classes.

“I try to get here to shoot in the morning, so I wake up at 5 a.m. to be here at 6,” he said. “It was nearly every day during the fall. Right now it’s twice a week.”

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The dedication is paying off. Abusara is averaging 11.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals in just 22 minutes per game for Benet (9-0), whose starters have hardly played in the fourth quarter.

“He’s a factor in every aspect of the game,” Heidkamp said. “The other day he had 10 rebounds, and he’s got the opportunity any day to get between five and 10 assists a game. That’s really where he’s at his best, when he’s facilitating and creating for others. Defensively, he’s so long and athletic that he has the ability to be impactful.”

Dartmouth plans to use Abusara as a point guard.

“They want me to create for the shooters and be a rebounding point guard who is athletic and can get to the basket,” Abusara said. “I don’t really need to score 20 points to impact the game as much.”

As usual, the Redwings have high expectations, including winning all of their tournaments and the conference title.

“We really want to go to Champaign and win state,” Abusara said. “But we’ve got to do the small goals first to accomplish those big goals.”

Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.