Bartlett stymies East Aurora
Nobody takes any pity on you in the Upstate Eight Conference.
East Aurora entered Friday's UEC Valley boys basketball game at Bartlett short-handed after senior point guard Lawrence Stewart strained his back in Thursday's loss to Glenbard East. He was joined on the bench by leading scorer Adrian Smith, who remains academically ineligible.
Sensing their chance to pounce, the Hawks and coach Jim Wolfsmith showed East Aurora ever-changing defenses that caused confusion, havoc and 22 turnovers in a 72-57 victory.
Bartlett (8-1, 4-1) jumped to a 21-9 lead after a quarter, took a 43-21 lead at the half and led by 22 early in the fourth quarter.
"I've always said we pride ourselves on defense," said Bartlett senior shooting guard Ryan DiCanio, who led the Hawks with 18 points to go with 5 assists and 2 steals. "We knew they couldn't handle the pressure because they're not a very sound team, so we just stepped it up on them and forced a lot of turnovers."
East Aurora (2-8, 1-5) started a junior and a sophomore in the backcourt.
"They mixed it up and did a good job of playing two different zones and a man," Tomcats coach Wendell Jeffries said. "When you don't have your floor general out there, our starting point guard, you have to make an adjustment on the different defenses. Coach Wolfsmith did a great job of mixing up his defenses and keeping us off-balance."
One of the main agitators for Bartlett was 5-foot-10 senior guard Cal Pauletti, who nabbed 5 steals.
"Cal is phenomenal when it comes to getting in passing lanes and creating turnovers and creating touches, which usually results in some kind of a turnover, ball out of bounds or a straight steal," Wolfsmith said. "That chaos, he's really good at that kind of game. He's really good at flying around and causing trouble."
East Aurora never quit. Down 56-38 with 7:15 remaining, the Tomcats drew within 10 points on junior Franklin Montgomery's transition bucket with 2:05 to play, but DiCanio and Tyler Pauletti answered with consecutive baskets to lengthen the lead to 14.
Junior forward Ron McBride led the Tomcats with 18 points while senior Anthony Peters had 15 and sophomore Maurice Nichols finished with 9 points and 15 rebounds.
Senior Jordan Anderson helped the Hawks build their lead by scoring 9 of his 11 points in the first half before fouling out late. Ten players participated for Bartlett and each scored at least 2 points. Six players tallied at least 5 points besides DiCanio and Anderson: Robby Jimenez (8), Mike Ourth (7), Ben Reyes (6), Augie Russo (6), Tyler Pauletti (5) and Jason Hasenberg (5).
The win was Bartlett's final tuneup for the Hinkle Holiday Classic at Jacobs. The Hawks face the host team in the opening game of pool play Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
"We've had some big wins that have prepared us for this Jacobs team," DiCanio said. "They have pretty much their whole starting lineup back, so it's going to be a good test for us."