Batavia dumps St. Charles North for 8th straight

Batavia began the second half of its Upstate Eight Conference River Division boys basketball schedule the same way it started the first - with a win over St. Charles North.

Junior Colin Cheaney came off the bench to pour in a career-high 19 points to lift the Bulldogs (15-6, 7-0) to an impressive 63-49 road victory over the North Stars (3-11, 1-6) in St. Charles Friday night.

Cheaney connected on his first shot - a 3-pointer from the wing - to break a 10-10 deadlock and added two more 3-pointers in the second quarter as the Bulldogs began taking control on the way to their eighth straight win.

"I was feeling it tonight," said Cheaney, who made 8 of 12 field-goal attempts including 3 of 4 from beyond the arc. "They gave me the shots because they were focusing on Canaan (Coffey) a lot. I felt I was open and just took it."

Coffey (11 points) ignited an 11-0 run late in the second quarter that turned an 18-18 tie into a 29-18 lead and eventual 29-20 halftime advantage. The surge included 3-pointers from Michael Fee and Cheaney, his third of the first half.

"He's kind of got that mentality," Batavia coach Jim Nazos said of Cheaney. "He's fearless in a lot of ways. I think the stronger he gets and the more he plays, he's going to get better and better."

"He made a huge difference," North Stars coach Tom Poulin said of Cheaney. "We closed out late on him and with our hands low. He made us pay. He really changed the game in the second quarter and gave them some breathing room."

That breathing became even less laborious following a 14-5 third-quarter spree that extended the Bulldogs' lead to 43-25. Once again, Cheaney led the way with 8 third-period points, 4 of them coming during Batavia's 10-0 run over the final 3:03.

It was an all too familiar occurrence for the North Stars, who suffered their ninth loss in 10 games despite senior guard Mikey Schroeder's 18 points.

"We have those stretches almost every game where we just dig a deep hole," said Poulin. "Whether it's a minute, whether it's three minutes, whether it's eight minutes - there's a stretch.

"I've gone back the last two days and looked - starting with Plainfield East (season debut) - at least a half of every game just seeing if there's something you're missing and what did jump out was a stretch of mistakes on both ends."

Kamontez Thomas scored 13 points and John Fitch added 7 points and 6 rebounds for Batavia, which had a 20-point lead trimmed to 10 midway through the fourth quarter.

"I thought it was a good win against a good team at their place," said Nazos, whose team visits Quincy Saturday night. "If we want to be the team we want to be, we've got to have these type of wins."