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Batavia shakes off slow start, beats St. Charles North

Batavia couldn't have got off to a worse start than it did Friday night in an Upstate Eight River clash with St. Charles North.

The Bulldogs didn't make a single shot in the first quarter, going 0 for 7. By halftime they had hit just 2 field goals.

Yet Batavia somehow stayed within 17-15 of the North Stars by getting to the free-throw line and playing defense. In the third quarter those shots finally started dropping, and Batavia scored 25 points on its way to a 51-38 victory.

"We just stayed with it," Batavia junior forward Colin Cheaney said. "Coaches just said stay with motion, do what we do. That's just kind of our mindset, keep shooting."

Cheaney scored a game-high 20 points while making just 3 field goals; he was 13 of 17 at the line.

Eight of those made free throws came in the first half to keep Batavia close.

"Refs were calling a lot of fouls," Cheaney said. "I just had to get to the line."

All those fouls were frustrating to St. Charles North (13-4, 5-2).

"I've never held a team to 2 field goals and give up 18 free-throw attempts," North Stars coach Tom Poulin said of the first half. "I don't know what we did wrong on that end because the kids played very good defensively and I didn't agree with 99 percent of the foul calls. In 20 years of coaching, I've never mentioned an official after a game. That was unbelievable as far as the first half goes. They lived at the line off quality defensive plays.

"Second half we just decided defense was optional, and Batavia played harder. It's disappointing. We're a lot better than we showed tonight."

Freshman Jayden Johnson put Batavia (12-10, 3-4) ahead 18-17 with a 3-pointer to open the third quarter. Eric Peterson caught fire after that, scoring the Bulldogs' next 9 points on two jumpers, a drive and a putback for a 27-21 lead.

After a deep 3 from Cheaney, Devion Davis capped the big quarter with back-to-back 3s to put Batavia up 40-29 going to the fourth quarter.

The North Stars quickly fell behind 47-29 in the fourth, and on a night they shot just 29.5 percent from the field (13 of 44) with no player scoring more than 9 points, they didn't have the firepower to come back.

"We really focused on help defense and rotating," Peterson said. "I thought we did a good job closing out on shooters and keeping (Kyle) King out of the paint."

Batavia rotated three players on King while holding him to 6 points and 10 rebounds. Brendan Dal Degan scored 9 and Anthony Delisi 8.

Davis added 9 points for the Bulldogs, whose bus leaves at 8 a.m. Saturday for their annual trip to Quincy.

"We had some bad turnovers, we had some bad looks at the basket," Batavia coach Jim Nazos said of the first half. "It was a really good job defensively to keep us in the game until we got going."

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