Gardner, Batavia overpower St. Charles North
Be assured, Batavia has plenty of offenses much more sophisticated than “throw it up and let Cole go get it.”
But if that's all the Bulldogs ran Thursday night against St. Charles North, it would have worked as well as anything John Wooden ever drew up.
Gardner did his best Blake Griffin impression with a relentless, punishing effort inside. He finished with 30 points and 17 rebounds, and Batavia blew open a 2-point game in the fourth quarter on its way to a 61-44 victory.
“It definitely is awesome, I've never had that before. It's the best game I've ever played,” Gardner said. “And it's nice to do it against these guys because they are great athletes and a great team.”
Batavia (9-8, 4-3) bounced back from an overtime defeat to Geneva in its previous game to stay two games behind Upstate Eight Conference River Division leader Elgin (5-1).
St. Charles North's loss leaves Elgin and St. Charles East (4-1) as the only teams with 1 loss. The North Stars (9-9, 4-2) were in a 38-36 game through three quarters, then hit just 3 of 19 shots in the fourth quarter while getting outscored 23-8.
“It's embarrassing to our program to go out and perform like that especially with the talent we have,” North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. “And also credit Batavia because they played harder, they played smarter, they played together more. And they embarrassed us.”
Gardner's career night didn't come against an undersized front line. The North Stars start 6-foot-7 Kyle Nelson, 6-4 Josh Mikes and 6-4 Quinten Payne.
Nelson, an AAU teammate with Gardner, was his own toughest critic even though the junior led his team with 14 points.
“He went to work and that's all on me,” Nelson said. “I have to play my role on the team and shut him down and I didn't do that tonight. He's got a motor, he's a big strong kid, football at heart first and he shows it.”
The 6-5 Gardner, averaging 13.4 and 8.1 rebounds a game this season, would be a lot closer to his Thursday numbers if not for all the time he's spent on the bench in foul trouble. That also was the case in the first meeting with St. Charles North, a 62-54 North Stars win on Dec. 2.
Gardner's aggressive style often leads to cheap fouls. He found the perfect remedy Thursday with an officiating crew that let both teams play — North Stars senior Chris Conrad had the only free-throw attempt for either team in the first half.
“I liked them, they let us play, in the first quarter especially,” Gardner said of the officials. “It's nice that way. We know what's going on the rest of the way.”
The North Stars took a 15-10 lead after the first quarter. Gardner scored 8 of Batavia's final 10 points of the first half to tie the game at 22-22 heading to halftime.
Gardner's stickback bucket — 5 of his 13 field goals came on putbacks — gave Batavia a 24-22 lead to start the third quarter. While the Bulldogs never trailed again, Nelson's own second-chance basket brought the North Stars within 2 points after three quarters.
Jesse Coffey found Gardner on an out-of-bounds play for an easy inside score and a 42-38 lead. After a Bulldog timeout with 4:32 remaining, Coffey drove for a 3-point play and followed with his first 3-pointer of the game for 6 quick points that opened a 48-38 margin.
The North Stars never got within 9 points again. Two more hustle plays by Gardner, offensive rebounds off Batavia missed free throws that he quickly converted into baskets, symbolized the difference in effort that irked Poulin.
“We had no spirit, it just didn't seem to matter to us tonight,” Poulin said. “I would guess we'd be ready to go. Just real disappointed with our effort toward the whole situation. This is what happens in this gym when you don't come ready to go.”
Coffey also had a big scoring night for Batavia, mostly on 5 of 6 free-throw shooting and several hard drives for 18 points. Elliott Vaughn added 8 points, 8 rebounds and blocked 3 shots.
“We tell our kids you have to keep your nose to the grindstone and keep competing,” Batavia coach Jim Roberts said.
Mikes joined Nelson in double figures with 12 points and a team-high 7 rebounds.