Batavia stops St. Charles East to snap skid
Batavia finally said enough is enough.
It came moments after St. Charles East freshman Amanda Hilton drained a 3-pointer to end the third quarter and give the Saints their biggest lead of the game Thursday night in St. Charles.
Already on a 7-game losing streak, the shot could have been the sign of another defeat on the way.
Luckily for Batavia, that's not how senior Maddie Sychta saw it.
“It was like, all right guys, let's go, we're tired of losing. Let's kick it up a notch and take care of this and get a win,” Sychta said.
And that's just what Batavia did, executing one play after another in the fourth quarter to catch up and then overtake St. Charles East, 41-36.
It was Batavia's (2-8, 1-1) first win since beating Belvidere Nov. 19 while St. Charles East fell to 2-6, 1-2.
“We fought back and made some good decisions at the end,” Batavia coach Tim DeBruycker said. “We needed a win. We had some confidence issues. The talent is there. Hopefully this will help us.”
Batavia freshman point guard Liza Fruendt was in the middle of many of those good decisions. She opened the final quarter assisting Miranda Grizaffi's basket that cut the Saints' lead to 31-27.
After 3 points from Sychta, Fruendt again found Grizaffi to tie the game at 33 with 5:43 remaining. Katie Baglieri's jumper put Batavia ahead.
Leading 33-32 with 2:21 left, Batavia came out of a timeout with a play DeBruycker drew up in the huddle. Sychta's pick freed Fruendt for an easy basket underneath.
“I was excited because it was the first time all year I drew up a play that we hadn't practiced and they ran it perfectly,” DeBruycker said. “I saw them (the Saints) cheating outside and said ‘Let's run it inside and if we set a good pick it should be wide open.' And it was.
“That's a good thing to see out of a basketball team. If I can set up a situational play and they run it perfect.”
The Saints finally got their first basket of the fourth quarter on Hilton's baseline drive, tying the game at 35-35 with 1:05 remaining. After a Batavia turnover, Lauren Rohrmeier split free throws to put the Saints on top.
The Bulldogs had one more perfectly executed play in them. Katie Ryan's screen freed Sychta cutting down the lane. Fruendt found Sychta with her third assist of the fourth quarter for a 3-point play and a 38-36 Batavia lead with 24.7 seconds left, the 16th lead change or tie of the game.
After a Saints travel, Fruendt split free throws making it 39-36. St. Charles East called timeout to set up a potential game-tying 3-pointer, but Fruendt cut in front of the inbounds pass for a steal that she took the other way for a layup as time expired.
“I always try to play my deny defense and I just tried to stay with the girl and pushed it and got the pass,” Fruendt said.
Kaytilin St. Clair scored all 6 of her points in the first half to help Batavia to an 18-16 halftime lead.
RaeAnne Payleitner, whose father Jay just missed winning $250 with a halftime half-court shot, came off the Saints bench to score 5 points in the third quarter as St. Charles East grabbed a 31-25 lead heading to the fourth.
The Saints then went cold, making 1 of 11 shots from the field after 6-of-12 shooting in the third quarter.
“(Batavia) finished at the end of the game, they executed better than we did. Kudos to them,” St. Charles East coach Lori Drumtra said. “I felt we had some good looks at the basket and couldn't quite finish.”
Both teams were playing without a starting sophomore guard, Sami Villarreal (hamstring) for Batavia and St. Charles East's Paige Jordan.
Jordan, the Saints' leading scorer, broke her left hand in practice last Thursday. She played with the injury and scored 8 points last Friday against St. Charles North while in considerable pain.
Drumtra said Jordan will be out two to three weeks. DeBruycker said Villarreal won't play in Batavia's next two games this weekend before being re-evaluated next week.
Hilton led all scorers with 13 points and Dani Asquini added 10 points and a team-high 9 rebounds.
“We played well in spurts,” Drumtra said. “We are still trying to put four good quarters together. We need to play more solid basketball. You've got to hold that (6-point) lead.”
Sychta led Batavia with 9 points and 10 rebounds. Fruendt and Baglieri both added 8 points.
“I can't even tell you how good it feels,” Sychta said. “The celebration in the locker room was huge. It's good for morale.”