Bartlett claws its way past Streamwood

The Bartlett boys basketball players resembled Babe Winkelman on a bad day for most of Friday's Upstate Eight rivalry game against visiting Streamwood.

After the Sabres played a stellar first quarter to take a 16-9 lead, Bartlett tried time and again to reel them in only to see Streamwood continually jump the hook. The Hawks pulled within a point on four occasions and tied the game twice, but they could not take the lead due to a bevy of inside buckets from seniors Marcus Greene (18 points), Marcus Lewis (11) Derrick King (10) and sophomore Lorenzo Mitchell (10 points, 13 rebounds).

It wasn't until the youngest member of the Bartlett crew - sophomore guard Matt Chaltin - splashed a 3-pointer with 3:09 left in the game that the Hawks grabbed their first lead of the game, 47-46. Chaltin's shot ignited a 9-2 run, which helped the Hawks finally land the big fish with a 55-53 victory.

"It did feel good," Chaltin said of his 3-pointer. "I finally came in and got consistent shots. They were a lot bigger than us, and they overpowered a lot of our guards down low, especially me."

Being outsized in the low block was no novel experience for Bartlett.

"Everybody's inside power seems to give us a struggle," Hawks coach Jim Wolfsmith said. "We knew coming in with the sophomore they have up (Mitchell), they were really going to give us a matchup problem with their size across the board. We could matchup with one or maybe two of them, but after that we had a bunch of 6-1 guys against their 6-3, 6-4 guys."

Bartlett senior forward Larry Whitaker (14 points, 11 rebounds) followed Chaltin's 3-pointer with 2 free throws and a drive from the perimeter for a layup, which put the Hawks ahead 51-46 with 1:40 to play.

Greene connected on a second-chance 3-pointer with 11.1 seconds remaining to trim Bartlett's lead to 53-51, but Hawks guard Luke Labedzki was quickly fouled and sank both free throws to make it a 2-possession game with 10 seconds left.

Greene rushed down the court and drove to the hoop for a layup with 6 seconds to play, but Labedzki was able to hold the ball out of bounds without putting it in play as time expired.

The victory snapped a 3-game losing streaking for Bartlett (11-8, 5-2), and gave the Hawks a measure of revenge for last season's loss to rival Streamwood (6-12, 2-4).

"This was huge," said Labedzki, who tacked 25 more points onto his school record for career scoring. "We lost to Streamwood last year, so this was a big victory for all of us."

The taller Sabres dominated the glass 19-10 in the first half, but the determined Hawks forged a 14-13 rebounding advantage in the second half.

"We tried pounding it inside because they couldn't stop us on the inside," Mitchell said. "When they did in the second half we needed to hit the outside shots, but they weren't falling for us."

Streamwood's 18 turnovers compared to 11 for Bartlett proved to be the difference, according to Sabres coach Tim Jones.

"The total of the game was our unforced turnovers," he said. "Obviously, they had pressure, but a lot of them had to do with us. I thought we played a (heck) of a game. If we play like that all the time, I think we'll win our share of games. We were athletic and we rebounded the ball well. We just had some breakdowns on turnovers and killed ourselves a little bit.

"I can't be any more proud. The kids played hard. I was impressed with the way we played."