Batavia 49, DeKalb 46

Thanks to David "clutch" Bryant, the Batavia boys basketball team escaped DeKalb with a Western Sun Conference win.

The junior scored 13 of his game-high 16 points in the fourth quarter, leading the Bulldogs to a 49-46 win over the Barbs Saturday.

"(Clutch) is a good way of putting it," Batavia coach Jim Roberts said of Bryant's performance.

The Bulldogs sure needed someone to step up. The two teams traded baskets early, but for the majority of the game, Batavia (16-3, 9-1) trailed, thanks to poor shooting.

The Bulldogs were behind by 9 at most in the second quarter and got within one point twice in the third, but couldn't catch up with the Barbs until late in the game.

The first time Batavia played DeKalb this year, the Bulldogs won 83-42.

"The shots weren't falling, but I knew we were getting some good penetration and some good looks, so we kept shooting the ball," Bryant said. "I had some confidence they were going to fall. The shots were right there."

With the Barbs leading 44-36 with 5:06 left in the game, Bryant went on a personal 8-0 run. His 3-pointer with 1:54 remaining knotted the game at 44, which was the only tie of the game.

DeKalb took the lead back on a Jordan Threloff free throw, only to have Bryant's third 3-pointer of the quarter push the Bulldogs to their first lead of the game, 47-45, with 35.2 to play.

"They were big shots," Bryant said of his 3-pointers. "I was confident after the first one. It was hard driving, so if I got the open look, I was going to keep shooting. Luckily, they went in."

"We did a better job of moving the basketball," Roberts added. "That opened things up."

The Barbs (10-10, 6-3) had the chance to tie the game, but made just one of two free throws with 15.9 seconds left in the game. On the second miss, Bryant was fouled in the scramble for the ball. That landed him at the free throw line, where he calmly sank a pair of free throws that allowed the Bulldogs the 49-46 advantage.

DeKalb had 10.7 seconds left to tie the game, but the 3-point attempt turned out to be an air ball as time expired.

In addition to Bryant, Nick Fruendt and Phil Albrecht each finished with 10 points.

Threloff, DeKalb's 6-foot-10 sophomore, finished with 13 points and 18 rebounds. He was held to just one point in the second half.

"I thought (Ricky) Clopton, (Jordan) Coffey and (Jordan) Church all did a good job of making him work," Roberts said. "(Threloff is) going to be one heck of a player. He's going to be a load. He's a load right now."

Darius McNeal also finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Barbs.

DeKalb girls 41, Batavia 36:The season-long winning streak for the Batavia girls basketball team in conference play is no more.

DeKalb scored the opening 9 points of the fourth quarter, and the Bulldogs were bedeviled by cold-shooting all evening from the floor as the Barbs escaped Batavia Saturday night with a 41-36 victory.

DeKalb improved to 10-15 overall, 8-3 in Western Sun play; Batavia dropped to 18-4, 11-1.

Geneva is a half game behind Batavia at 10-1. The rivals play Feb. 8 in Geneva to close Western Sun Conference play with the conference championship likely on the line.

"We didn't shoot the ball well," said Batavia coach Tim DeBruycker, whose squad was 11-for-49 from the field. "When they made their run, we didn't answer. We needed a kick here or there."

Batavia junior Natalie Tarter, who led all scorers with 23 points, sank four consecutive free throws two minutes into the third quarter to provide the first lead of greater than 2 points for either team.

The Barbs' Alana Risatti forged the ninth -- and final -- tie of the game moments later with a putback, but Batavia still nursed a 27-26 lead into the fourth courtesy of a Tarter free throw.

That is when the trouble began for Batavia.

Risatti had another second-chance field goal to give DeKalb the lead for good 12 seconds into the final quarter, and the Barbs' unanswered run was extended to nine when MacKenzie Johnson followed an Ali Ford 3-pointer with another inside score.

Tarter had a 5-0 run with a 3-pointer and driving layup to reduce the Barbs' lead to 37-34 with 1:11 remaining, but DeKalb salted the game away with free throws.

The loss overshadowed a dominating performance by Tarter, but her lightening-quick athleticism could not alter the game in the Bulldogs' favor.

"Batavia is so athletic," DeKalb coach Debbie Whitman said. "(Tarter) gets to the basket better than any player I've seen. We wanted to make her beat us from the outside."

Tarter found the going from the outside difficult, but the forward slashed her way inside anyway, ultimately making 12 of 14 free throws to offset her perimeter woes.

"I was just trying to get points on the board anyway I could," Tarter said. "Our defense and execution in general was low. We didn't play like we normally do."

Other than Tarter in the opening half, which ended in an 18-18 deadlock, the only Bulldogs to score from the field were Kara Lydon, who drained a 25-footer at the first-quarter horn, and Melissa Norville.

"We can't do that," DeBruycker said of the Bulldogs' reliance on Tarter. "We have to have more offensive balance than that."

Helen Muleya, who missed 17 games with a broken foot, led DeKalb with 14 points.

"It's just two different teams (with Muleya in the lineup)," Whitman said.

-- Kevin McGavin