Bulldogs go from underdogs to conference champions

Talk about flying under the radar.

The Batavia girls basketball team exceeded all expectations this year after doing the following:

• Winning a conference title (13-1) for the first time since the 1997-98 season.

• The Bulldogs clinched the title against Geneva on Friday at Geneva on the Vikings' Senior Night by the final score of 62-61.

• The Bulldogs finished the regular season 20-4, which was a huge turnaround from last year's showing of 13-16.

These Bulldogs, were, well, underdogs. Now they are conference champs.

"We wanted it," Batavia senior Tracy Ferguson said. "We knew it was going to be tough, but we came out on top…We really made a name for ourselves."

Rewind to the beginning of the year. The Bulldogs returned two non-starting seniors in Ferguson and JoAnna Wagner. The rest were a bunch of juniors and a sophomore.

Batavia finished under .500 last year, graduated 6 seniors and went 8-6 in the conference, which tied with Yorkville for third in the standings.

Geneva entered this year underdogs themselves, yet were the two-time defending conference champs. The Vikings hadn't lost a conference game in two seasons.

By the time Batavia and Geneva played one another this season in Mid-December, both were undefeated overall and in the conference standings.

Batavia beat the Vikings, 59-50 and was in the driver's seat in the conference standings.

A week later, the Bulldogs topped Geneva again, 54-51, in the Oswego Holiday Classic.

And then there was Friday's huge win for the Bulldogs.

Even though Geneva finished second overall in the conference standings at 12-2, Vikings coach Gina Nolan took notice of how far Batavia has come.

"Congratulations to Tim (DeBruycker) and his team," Nolan said. "He's done a nice job with them."

DeKalb was the only conference team that beat the Bulldogs. The Barbs did it Jan. 26 by the final score of 41-36.

"That was a big upset," Batavia junior Natalie Tarter said. "But it made the game (against Geneva) so much more important. Losing to DeKalb put more pressure on us. Luckily, it all paid off."

As luck would have it, the No. 7 seeded Bulldogs will play the No. 10 seed Vikings Tuesday in the Class 4A regional semifinal at Bartlett at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

You think winning a conference championship is big? Try facing elimination.

Tuesday's game will no doubt have both teams fired up. Geneva will be seeking revenge. Bad.

"I like our chances," Nolan said.

And Batavia? The Bulldogs don't want to stop at a conference title. They want a regional title as well.

"It's Round 4," DeBruycker said. "They say it's tough to beat a team three times -- I don't want to know what it's going to be like to try and beat them four (times), but we'll come out Tuesday with just as much effort and energy as Geneva.

"We are not going to have a letdown. It's Geneva."

cbolin@dailyherald.com