DeKalb ends Batavia's season

It is never a good sign when a team goes an entire quarter without a defensive rebound.

But for the Batavia boys basketball team, there simply were none to be had.

DeKalb connected on its opening 9 shots of the Class 4A Geneva regional and wound up shooting 67 percent for the game to end the Bulldogs' season with a 75-57 victory in Geneva on Monday night.

The Barbs (22-7) will face top-seeded Geneva in the semifinals on Tuesday; Batavia had its season come to a 15-15 close.

"DeKalb is a very good team," Batavia coach Jim Nazos said. "They did a lot of nice things offensively."

The only shot DeKalb missed in the first quarter was a runner in the lane at the buzzer.

The Barbs were 14-for-17 midway through the second quarter in fashioning back-to-back 21-point quarters to take a 42-29 lead at halftime.

Starting guards Ethan Conroy and Michael Pollack did not miss a shot from the field in combining for 23 first-half points for DeKalb.

"We were just clicking offensively," Pollack said. "Those rims are really soft here."

Batavia would have been worse off if it were not for the inspired play of senior post Chasen Peez, who scored 15 of his game-high 28 points in the first half.

Batavia appeared dead in the water after falling behind by 18 points early in the third quarter. But the Bulldogs had one final burst as Peez and Carter Eberhardt had back-to-back 3-point plays.

The Bulldogs' Ed Golden, the eighth man, scored his fourth field of the game on a putback to complete a 13-2 Batavia run.

Batavia, though, lost much of its momentum when Nazos was cited for only the second technical foul of his 17-year coaching career.

DeKalb turned the violation of the coaches' box into a 4-point possession.

"I learned a lesson tonight," Nazos said.

But Batavia soldiered on, reducing it 9-point deficit to begin the fourth quarter with another spurt as Peez had consecutive field goals to start the quarter. DeKalb, however, would hold Peez scoreless for the last seven-plus minutes of the game.

"I think I got inside my own head," Peez said. "I started thinking that (my career) was over. I started getting anxious."

Pollack did not help matters as the junior guard scored 7 of his team-high 27 points in succession for DeKalb to reestablish the Barbs' double-digit lead.

"They did shoot really well," Peez said of the Barbs.

DeKalb hit 11 straight free throws in the fourth quarter to ice the game. Batavia had 8 defensive rebounds for the game as DeKalb finished 24-for-36 from the floor.

"We tried our hardest," Peez said. "We just couldn't get it done."