Batavia rallies from 7 down in final 90 seconds, beats St. Charles North
St. Charles North outplayed Batavia for 31 of the 32 minutes Friday night in St. Charles.
But oh what a final minute for the Bulldogs.
Trailing by 7 points with just 1:30 remaining, Batavia stunned the North Stars with an 11-0 run to end the game and steal a 41-37 Upstate Eight River victory.
"I'll have to go watch and see how the heck that even happened," Batavia coach Kevin Jensen said. "It was fun. We executed down the stretch exceptionally well offensively."
St. Charles North (11-10, 4-4) matched its biggest lead at 36-28 on Anna Davern's 2 free throws with 3:24 remaining, and still led 37-30 when Leilauni Chanthaboury split two free throws with 1:32 left.
Ava Sergio started the comeback by cutting down the lane, taking a pass and scoring inside. After the North Stars missed a free throw, Sergio did the exact same thing and was fouled this time, sinking the free throw for a 3-point play to make it 37-35 with :47.7 left.
"We were running our box single and I saw an open lane and my teammates saw me," Sergio said. "We kept motivated and pushed through. We kept the energy up."
Erin Golden followed Sergio's basket by intercepting a cross-court pass. She was fouled going to the basket and made both free throws to tie the game at 37.
St. Charles North turned the ball over again, this time on Geddy Rerko's steal, and Rerko also was fouled. She made both for a 39-37 lead - Batavia's first since it was 4-2.
The North Stars had a chance to tie but missed two free throws with 17 seconds to go, and Golden iced the game by sinking 2 more free throws. Batavia hit 7 of 7 free throws in the final minute while the North Stars went 1 for 5.
"I knew I had to hold my composure and take my time," Golden said. "We practice them all the time.
"It (the comeback) shows how much energy our team has and we can always keep going and believe in ourselves."
Batavia (14-9, 7-1), who stayed a game behind Geneva in the UEC River, overcame a cold shooting night at 35 percent (13 for 37) - the exact same totals as St. Charles North - except the North Stars missed all 5 of their shots in the fourth quarter.
The North Stars were coming off a loss to St. Charles East when they lost an 8-point second-half lead.
"We're finding unique ways to lose games and that's not where you want to be especially in this home stretch," North Stars coach Mike Tomczak said.
Golden topped all scorers with 18 points to go with 7 rebounds and 5 steals. Sergio finished with 10 points, 4 rebounds and 2 blocked shots.
"It was frustrating when our shots weren't falling but we knew we were taking good shots and they would eventually fall," Sergio said.
Chanthaboury paced the North Stars with 15 points including buzzer-beaters at the end of the first and second quarters. Annie Tate added 12 points and 6 rebounds.
"For 31 minutes we played some of the best basketball we have this year," Tomczak said. "Defensively we were locked in, offensively we moved the ball. And that last minute we reverted back to some old and terrible habits."