Bartlett 86, Batavia 63
All the Bartlett boys basketball team heard recently was Batavia this and Batavia that.
The Hawks weren't paying attention to all the hype.
Bartlett used its height advantage, timely shooting and tremendous defense Friday night to rout the top-seeded Bulldogs, 86-63, in the title game of the Class 4A Bartlett regional.
"There's nothing you can say right now," Bartlett senior Cory Hrynyk said wearing the net around his neck and holding the regional championship plaque in his left hand. "We knew we could come in here and give them a challenge. Our guys did everything we needed to."
Bartlett (21-7) tied the school record for wins and claimed its second regional championship. The other came in 2001.
The eighth-seeded Hawks next play No. 13 Glenbard West, a 40-36 winner over Naperville Central on Friday, at 7:30 p.m. in the semifinals of the East Aurora sectional.
"I thought we matched up well with Batavia," Hawks coach Jim Wolfsmith said. "Our team never doubted themselves. Not for a moment. I believed we were going to win the game."
The Bulldogs, ranked No. 10 in Class 4A by the Associated Press and No. 1 by the Daily Herald, led for 15 seconds the entire game. Jordan Smith's offensive rebound and putback with 38 seconds left in the first quarter gave Batavia (21-6) a 13-11 lead.
Frankie Cleope hit his second 3-pointer of the quarter with 23 seconds remaining in the first to give Bartlett a 14-13 heading to the second. The Hawks scored the first 10 points of the quarter to take a 24-13 lead. The lead never fell below 8 the rest of the game.
"Coach has been telling us lately that we've been starting out slow," said Cleope, who finished with 14 points. "We knew that if we didn't start out strong it would be a real close game."
Kamil Janton, Bartlett's 6-foot-9 center who is heading to Eastern Michigan, dominated the second quarter. The senior scored 11 points and grabbed 5 rebounds in the quarter. He finished with a team-high 19 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.
"I watched Batavia against Simeon and Stan Simpson," Janton said of Simeon's 6-foot-9 big guy who finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds in a game earlier this season against Batavia. "After watching that, I thought I can do some of the same things."
Nick Fruendt, Batavia's four-year starter who is going to Northwestern, struggled to find any open looks thanks to Hrynyk's defense. Fruendt scored a game-high 20 points, going 11-for-20 from the free-throw line. But the senior went 4-for-23 from the field. He was 1-for-18 in the first three quarters.
Batavia junior guard David Bryant went 4-for-16, scoring 10 points while being hounded by Bartlett's Marc Little most of the night. Phil Albrecht scored 8 points in the fourth quarter and finished with 12. Smith added 11.
The Bulldogs shot 20-for-72, 28 percent.
"There weren't too many second shots opportunities," said Batavia coach Jim Roberts, whose team was out-rebounded 46-35. "That along with missing shots was not a good recipe for success."
Little finished with 16 points for the Hawks. Hrynyk, concentrating most of his energy on guarding Fruendt, still was able to contribute 13 points. Luke Labedski added 12 points and 7 rebounds.
"We know we're a good team and we can keep up with any team," Cleope said. "They were predicted to go all the way to state, but we knew we could keep up with them."