Batavia gets taste of L.A.N.

I've heard some talk going around about what Batavia is going to be like next year, if the Bulldogs are prepared to go through L.A.N. -- Life After Nick.

Batavia fans got an unexpected look at what that might be like Friday night.

And they might see much more of it in the coming few weeks.

Nick Fruendt, the Northwestern-bound star of the Bulldogs, missed Batavia's 73-70 loss to Geneva with mono.

Fruendt has been such a fixture in the Batavia lineup the last four years, coach Jim Roberts had quite an adjustment to make.

"We talked (with the players) about playing with a great deal of passion and pride," Roberts said. "That's an unfortunate part of it but injuries and illnesses occur."

While playing without Fruendt certainly was an adjustment for Batavia, it also was a shock to the Vikings. Imagine game-planning all week for Fruendt and then looking out in warmups and not seeing No. 5 for Batavia.

Geneva learned around game time that Fruendt wasn't playing.

"It concerned me because you don't want to have a letdown," Geneva coach Tim Pease said. "You don't want your guys to say they are without one of their bullets in their gun. And he's a pretty large bullet.

"I kept trying to convince my guys we still have a war on our hands. (David) Bryant is not going to go away. (Phil) Albrecht is still playing. I was glad we got up after them and tried to take them out of what they like to do, and we were able to do that for a large portion of the first two quarters."

The easy thing to say is, "Oh, Geneva only won because Fruendt didn't play. Batavia would have won big with him."

I'm certainly not going to argue Fruendt isn't worth the 4 points that could have won the game for the Bulldogs -- he's worth more like 40 points. Even if the Bulldogs had him on the court in the final few minutes to help handle the ball, you wouldn't have seen Batavia cough up a 7-point lead with three minutes to play.

But that line of thinking also does a tremendous disservice to a gritty Geneva team.

Gritty players like Alex Turnowchyk, who scored a team-high 26 points.

The same Turnowchyk who after a loss two weeks ago to Glenbard South, was so distraught he was in the Geneva gym the next morning at 6:30 a.m. practicing his shot.

"He feels like he let his teammates down," Pease said. "It's that type of character kid we have here. People don't see that work that goes into that. I'm real happy for Alex to have the game he did."

So what does Life without Nick look like? It certainly wasn't pretty for the first 13 minutes or so. The Bulldogs found themselves in a 34-17 hole, rattled by Geneva and looking lost without their star.

Then Batavia showed it has another potential star.

Junior David Bryant started hitting shots from everywhere. He drained back-to-back 3-pointers to help trim that 17-point deficit to 7 at halftime, then put on an unbelievable shooting display in the third quarter.

Bryant scored 16 points in the third quarter, swished four 3-pointers, a couple of them closer to half court than the 3-point line.

"He's such a smart kid he knew we were trapping that first pass so he'd just keep the ball, dancing at the top of the key and shooting from 25 feet," Pease said. "If someone has a defense for that I'd like to know what that is. I tip my hat to him."

Batavia also got strong performances from Ricky Clopton (13 points, 9 rebounds) and Jordan Smith (15 points) inside.

"I think a number of guys stepped up," Roberts said. "You look at what David did offensively, he really stepped into that role. I thought Ricky Clopton stepped in and took the ball strong to the glass."

Batavia will need Clopton, Smith, Bryant and company to keep up what they did Friday. Mono could sideline Fruendt for several weeks including the game next Saturday at Quincy and the Elgin Holiday tournament, which Batavia won in 2005 and finished third last year.

It certainly is a lousy break for a player who has given so much to the Batavia program.

"He's being treated for it and we'll take it a step at the time," Roberts said.

Even the Vikings had mixed feelings about Fruendt's absence.

"I wish he was playing, it would have been a lot better if he was out there, it would have been a lot different game," Cary said.

"But I'm glad with the way we played. I'm glad we got the win."