Batavia blitzes Kaneland in 2nd quarter
Taking an opponent's best punch has been a problem for Kaneland all season, which made Batavia's eight minutes of near flawless basketball in the second quarter Tuesday all the more lethal.
The Bulldogs outscored the Knights 21-3 in the second quarter, turning around an early deficit and sending Batavia on its way to a 46-22 win in Maple Park.
The Bulldogs (8-9, 4-5), who defeated Kaneland 43-16 in the first meeting, won by a similar margin. Sara Fruendt connected on consecutive 3-pointers midway through the second quarter that started a 14-0 burst to end the first half.
"When you shoot the ball well, play good man-to-man defense, that translates to good points," Batavia coach Tim DeBruycker said.
Kaneland (5-15, 0-8) didn't have any answer, scoring its only basket in the second quarter on freshman Emma Bradford's putback. After making 4 shots in the first quarter, the Knights mustered just two field goals in the next two quarters combined.
"Teams are going to go on runs," Kaneland coach Ernie Colombe said. "We use the term the glass is going to crack a little bit but it cannot shatter. We keep leaving the glass shattered. These runs get out of control. Offensively and defensively a lot of fundamental mistakes."
Kaneland's Emily Heimerdinger and Andie Strang both connected to start the game, giving the Knights a 4-0 lead they held for the first four minutes.
Batavia senior Kelsey Stone's stickback finally put the Bulldogs on the board, but baskets by Mallory Carlson and Kelly Evers left the Knights in the lead after the first quarter, 9-6.
That changed quickly in the second quarter. Liz Barnes gave Batavia the lead for good 13-10 with a 3-pointer from the corner. After Fruendt's back-to-back 3s, Katie Baglieri, Maddie Sychta and Stone all made shots to put Batavia up 27-12 at halftime.
"In the second quarter we stopped turning the ball over," Stone said of Batavia's 0 turnovers in the quarter after 7 in the first.
"We took care of it, ran our offense, shot the ball a lot better. That's what we needed to do."
DeBruycker didn't play his starters long in the second half. Batavia got to the free-throw line 12 times in the third quarter and outscored the Knights 14-5 to lead 41-17 heading to the fourth.
Stone led Batavia with 10 points and 8 rebounds. Sychta (8 rebounds) and Fruendt both added 8 points, while senior Megan Fitzwater made 3 of 4 free throws to complete the scoring.
"I thought we had a good shooting night," DeBruycker said. "Sara hit a couple nice 3s in the second quarter to get us ignited. All-around defensive night was good. Good team effort."
Carlson led the Knights with 6 points, Nicki Ott added 5 and Heimerdinger paced the defense with 4 steals.
"We're trying to figure out what's going on with not being able to sustain a lot of things offensively and defensively," Colombe said. "We did get off to a nice start which was nice because we have been falling behind early but the same thing happened which is a big run. As soon as they hit a couple shots we started forcing shots."