Winning attitude powers Bulldogs

The Batavia girls basketball team -- much like the boys team -- is one of the best squads in the Tri-Cities area this year.

At 16-2 overall and 11-0 in the Western Sun Conference, the Bulldogs have made quite the improvement since last year.

"It's a big turnaround for us," Batavia coach Tim DeBruycker said. "The girls like it, and we expect to win. I think that attitude helps."

How much have the Bulldogs improved? They beat their rival Geneva, which had their number for the past few years, twice. They are winning close games. They aren't falling apart in the fourth quarter.

Against Kaneland last week, for example, the Bulldogs trailed most of the game, were held to just 2 points in the first quarter and had just one player, Natalie Tarter, score in double-digits.

Batavia, however, hung in there, came back in the fourth and used clutch free throws and rebounds to secure its 10th conference win.

"When a game like that (against Kaneland) happens, we know what to do and that helps," DeBruycker said. "In the last couple of years, that's what we were building on."

Last season, the Bulldogs finished 13-16.

"We lost a lot of close games last year," DeBruycker said. "Four or five games could have gone the other way, and you are 18-11. We just didn't know how to execute down the stretch, but now we are and winning a lot of close games because we believe we should. That's what's coming with the records more than anything."

St. Charles North: The last time the North Stars topped Upstate Eight Conference and rival St. Charles East, Kelsey Smith was a freshman.

She's a junior this year, and entering Saturday's game, all the North Stars wanted to do was top the Saints.

They did just that, as they beat St. Charles East 50-27 on the Saints' home court. Their sixth consecutive win improved the North Stars to 16-4 overall.

"It was definitely time," said Katie Sauber, who is in her second year as head coach of the North Stars. "They did a nice job. They were relaxed and ready to go…we needed this."

The North Stars are still undefeated in the conference and still have to play Lake Park and Waubonsie Valley.

The North Stars take on the Lancers at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at St. Charles North, where they are going to "freeze the lake" and will offer free ice cream cones to the first 50 fans.

St. Charles East: The Saints won't have much time to dwell on their first Upstate Eight Conference loss to the North Stars.

Instead, they will deal with it and turn around and play nonconference foe Grant tonight at 7 p.m.

"Grant is an excellent team. We have another tough one coming up," St. Charles East coach Lori Drumtra said.

The Saints are 13-7 overall, 6-1 in the conference.

"We knew the second half of our schedule was going to be really tough," Drumtra said "We take one game at a time and hopefully improve on each one."

The Saints still have to play Waubonsie Valley, Larkin and Lake Park in conference play and Batavia and Marian Central in nonconference action.

Kaneland: Don't be shocked if the Knights knock off an opponent with a better record before the end of the season.

They almost did it three times in one week -- all Western Sun Conference opponents. Geneva, Glenbard South and Batavia all felt Kaneland's pressure before each team edged the Knights. All games were determined by 6 points or less.

"I've said it all year, the girls on our team do what they are asked in practice," Kaneland coach Ernie Colombe said. "They want to be good, but we keep running into this hurdle of hitting a certain spot. We have to get over the hump. We have to put someone away. I see us getting better. The effort is there."

This year's Kaneland team somewhat resembles last year's Batavia squad -- coming close, but not close enough to win.

The Knights are 6-15 overall, 1-9 in the conference and have dropped their last 4 games.

"I think its learning to play with the lead and knowing your role at crunch time," Colombe said. "We know who we want to have the ball in the last few minutes, and when that doesn't happen, there should be a second person to step up or third player, but we haven't defined that in games yet. To me, I thought we were beyond that but I guess not."

Westminster wins tournament: Westminster Christian won its first two games of the season and with it the championship of its own Martin Luther King Day tournament

The Warriors (2-14) started off the first round with a 33-26 victory over Woodlands Academy. All-Tournament team and MVP honoree Rachel Doby led the Warriors with 12 points while teammate Hannah Graves added 8 points.

The Warriors' second game of the day was in the championship round against Mooseheart. Also awarded all-tournament team honors was Sarah Rodgers who stepped up and posted 23 points on the board in the 50-43 win.

Sarah Wesley was the third Warrior to receive the all-tournament team honors.

Graves (12 points) and Doby (9 points) each contributed for the Warriors.