Bartlett gets a dose of experience, education

There aren't many athletes or coaches out there who will tell you that losing is a good thing.

Losing isn't fun, and to anyone with a competitive edge, it's usually far from acceptable.

But losing can also bring a couple of things to a team that are of value — things like experience and education.

The Bartlett girls basketball team got both Thursday night when the Hawks were schooled by one of the best and most consistent programs in the state — Fenwick — in the championship game of the 28th Charger Classic at Dundee-Crown.

The final score of 65-47 is a pretty good indicator of how Fenwick dominated this game. It mattered little to the Friars that Bartlett was a perfect 15-0 coming into the game. It mattered little to them that Bartlett wanted some revenge over a 70-57 loss to them in last year's sectional final. It mattered little that Bartlett was jacked up for its first appearance in the D-C title game.

Fenwick is Fenwick, and even though New Trier interrupted the Friars' title run at D-C last year, no other program has consistently dominated the Charger Classic like Fenwick has since winning its first championship in 1999.

For the record, Thursday's title is Fenwick's ninth in the 28 years of the Charger Classic and its seventh in the last eight years.

And the Friars did to Bartlett what they've been doing to teams all season ... well, pretty much since the day Hall of Fame coach Dave Power took over the program at the Oak Park school in 1992. They were the aggressor early, got their lead, took the Hawks' best shot after halftime, and then maintained their status as the better team.

“We learned we're not invincible,” said Bartlett senior Jacki Gulczynski. “We're not Superman. We have weaknesses and a lot of them were exposed. Hopefully we'll learn from this and see this new and improved Fenwick team in the sectional finals again.”

What Fenwick did more than anything to Bartlett was be physical. No other team has been able to push the Hawks around like the Friars did Thursday night. Fenwick grabbed every loose basketball, it battled for every rebound, it controlled every situation.

That's what champions do.

“We did a poor job of being patient,” Gulczynski said. “We didn't work to get the good shot. They got a lot of transition baskets on us because we didn't get back on defense.”

Hawks coach Denise Sarna knew getting into a 10-point hole early in the game would not lend itself to being a winning night for her team.

“We didn't play with consistency tonight,” she said. “We dug ourselves a 10-point hole right at the beginning and that's not easy to get out of against a quality team like Fenwick.”

The loss will leave a foul taste in Bartlett's mouth for the new year, there's no question about that. They won't have much time to worry about it, though, as they hit the road for a game against another ranked team in Geneva Tuesday night.

“We didn't come in here expecting to lose or lose by this much,” Sarna said. “We're a good team but we want to be a great team. We have some things to work on to become that by the end of the season.”

Despite the loss, Sarna did agree that making it to the D-C title game for the first time is something to build on. Even in 2004, when the Hawks went on to finish second at the state tournament, they lost in the semifinals at Dundee-Crown.

“When you come into the championship game and lose you can't feel good about it,” Sarna said. “It's an accomplishment to finish second and a lot of teams would like to trade places with us. We're proud of being second but we also know we have work to do.”

Experience and education. The Hawks got a dose of both Thursday night.

Now it's up to them to use those things to their advantage over the next 2 months.