Marshall holds off Batavia 56-55
Batavia scrapped and battled for 27 minutes to finally get back on even terms with Marshall on Saturday night.
And it took a little more than a minute for the Commandos to regain command in the finale of the 11th annual Meijer High School Hoops Showdown at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates.
The quick 6-point burst gave Marshall the breathing room it needed to hold off Batavia 56-55 in a meeting of state-ranked boys basketball teams.
"We knew we could play with them," said junior David Bryant, who scored 8 points and hit a 3-pointer to get Batavia within 53-51 with 48 seconds left. "We knew it would be different from conference (Western Sun) and I thought we started a little slow the first couple minutes.
"But once we got used to their quickness and adjusted to the floor I thought we did a good job."
Quick was the operative word as Marshall (15-3), ranked third in Class 3A by the Associated Press, never trailed Batavia (15-3), ranked seventh in 4A.
And it was evident after Northwestern-bound senior Nick Fruendt (16 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocked shots) drew Batavia even at 44-44 on a 3-point play off a miss with 4:59 left.
Fifty seconds later, Marshall junior Darius Smith (18 points on 7-for-13 shooting) scored inside. Another hanging drive on the right side by Smith and a tip-in by Davaris Davis finished the 6-0 run for a 50-44 lead with 3:03 to play.
"Quick, everything they do is quick," Batavia coach Jim Roberts said of Marshall's decisive run.
"Quick feet, quick hands," said Fruendt, who fouled out with 1:12 to play. "They've got some hops."
Batavia's zones did effectively stifle Marshall senior star Ryan Hare to 11 points on 5-for-16 shooting.
Smith helped pick up the slack for the Commandos, who beat Chicago Public League rival and second-ranked 4A Farragut earlier this week.
"We haven't had too much luck in close games," Smith said. "Someone had to step up and do it."
Marshall never led by more than 8 points and couldn'tt break away as Batavia got solid efforts from Jordan Smith (12 points, 7 rebounds), Ricky Clopton (10 points, 9 rebounds) and Phil Albrecht (9 points on three 3-pointers, 3 assists).
"We knew we were going to have to keep scoring and keep fighting back," Hare said, "because we knew they were going to keep coming."
Batavia could only split 6 free throws the final 2:41 and one by Clopton cut the deficit to 55-52 with 12.5 seconds left.
Davis sealed it by hitting the second of 2 free throws with 6.4 seconds left. Batavia was out of timeouts and Albrecht's 3 at the buzzer set the final score.
"Our kids came right back at them," Roberts said. "We had some looks."