Batavia beats Streamwood to snap 3-game skid

After starting the season by winning its own Thanksgiving tournament, then stubbing its toe in three Upstate Eight River conference losses, Batavia had one mission in mind Saturday night.

Do not lose to a struggling, winless Streamwood team.

More precisely, the Bulldogs wanted to get out of the gate fast and make sure to secure a victory everyone in the Batavia gym sensed was coming.

When junior guard Canaan Coffey drilled two 3-pointers from deep in the right corner and backcourt mate Kamontez Thomas made a driving layup off a steal, the Bulldogs had their fast start.

And Batavia (5-3, 1-3) never looked back in securing an easy 68-40 conference win.

"The main thing we wanted to do was get off to a good start," Coffey said. "In our conference games, we haven't gotten off to the start we wanted and that slowed us down the rest of the game.

"It's not the third and fourth quarters that hurt us, it's those opening minutes when teams jump out to a lead against us," Coffey added.

No such problem in this contest, as Batavia opened a 27-7 lead after one quarter and enjoyed a 37-16 halftime lead.

As has been the case so far this season for Batavia, coach Jim Nazos was not afraid to throw every player into the fray. Fourteen of the 15 players who got into the game scored, with Coffey and Thomas leading the way with 9 points each.

"This is a very deep team, the deepest I have ever been a part of, and all of these guys can play," Nazos said. "The guys in there at the end of the game were always in the right spots defensively, they moved the ball around and found the open guy."

A roster full of skilled players has its benefits away from game nights, too, Nazos said.

"We have very good practices because we are so deep," Nazos added. "I have no problem taking five guys out and putting five new guys in during the game."

Things didn't get any better for Streamwood (0-8, 0-4) in the second half as Ed Golden scored all 5 of his points in the third quarter to help Batavia open a 53-27 lead and put things in cruise control for the final quarter.

It was not all doom and gloom for the Streamwood. The Sabres had two freshmen on the floor to start the game - Phil Cruz and Brendan Marton.

All Marton did was finish with a game-high 16 points, showing a soft touch along the baseline and flashing some nice moves in the lane, while also hauling down 6 rebounds. Cruz, meanwhile, finished with a game-high 7 rebounds to go along with 5 points and several hustle plays for loose balls.

Streamwood coach Paul Kowalyszyn was pleased with the play of his two freshmen starters.

"They really showed me something, but they have a long way to go," he said. "But they listen, they play hard and they go after the ball."

For his team to improve as the season moves along, Kowalyszyn said the Sabres have to "focus on the small things, because obviously talent-wise we are not where we need to be."

Those small things include getting to loose balls on the floor. "We have to win all of those to have a chance in conference games," he said.

Batavia clearly won that phase of the game, grabbing nine loose-ball rebounds, compared to Streamwood's four. But the Sabres held their own on the boards, matching Batavia with 28 each.

But the Bulldogs forced Streamwood into 26 turnovers, as the young Sabres struggled with Batavia's perimeter defense.

"We wanted to take a step forward from the last game we played and we did a lot of good things offensively and I thought we were 'on' most of the time," Nazos said of the Bulldogs' first conference win.