Electrified Bartlett is ready for more
Bartlett athletic director Dan Kallenbach was handed a special package right after Bartlett's boys basketball team knocked off Glenbard West 67-64 on Tuesday night.
Contained within a plastic baggie were 1,400 tickets to Friday's Upstate Eight Conference game, er, Class 4A East Aurora sectional title game, which will pit the eighth-seeded Hawks against the winner of tonight's semifinal between UEC rivals, No. 2 Waubonsie Valley and No. 6 Neuqua Valley.
"How many (fan) buses do you think we'll need? Six? Seven?" someone asked Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith after he emerged from the postgame locker room.
"Heck, I hope we need 10," a still-electrified Wolfsmith replied. "Let's get the whole school down here. I love this facility!"
The Hawks won for the second time this season at the historic Aurora hoops venue, thanks to another great night from one of its four stars.
This time it was sophomore Luke Labedzki stealing the spotlight with 21 points and 5 rebounds.
Bartlett point guard Marc Little scored 14 points and senior forward Cory Hrynyk helped Bartlett (22-7) achieve a new school record for victories by going 5-of-6 at the free throw line in the fourth quarter on his way to 10 points.
But to say Bartlett has four excellent players -- including center Kamil Janton, who was held to 8 points and 6 rebounds by Glenbard West star John Shurna -- and not much else wouldn't be accurate.
The Hawks got a big lift in a key stretch during Tuesday's victory from two of their more unsung players: sophomore guard Frankie Cleope and senior forward Marcell Randell.
Cleope logged important minutes midway through the third quarter when Little was forced to leave the game to get his ankle taped.
Randell entered the game a minute later after Janton picked up his fourth foul.
Rather than wither without two of its key men, the Hawks continued to blossom.
With Bartlett leading by 6 points, Randell immediately made a steal and fed a perfect pass in transition to Cleope, who scored the layup for 2 of his 10 points.
On Bartlett's next possession, Randell had his shot blocked by Shurna, but Randell acrobatically saved the rebound to Hrynk, who drained a baseline jumper that gave Bartlett a 10-point lead.
Instead of falling apart without two of its key players during a critical stretch, the Hawks' lead had increased.
"Coach has been saying all year that we have depth and we followed through with it, we proved it," said Cleope, who teamed with Labedzki to go 28-0 at Bartlett's Eastview Middle School.
Said Randell: "We have key players who can come in at anytime, guys who would start on any team in our conference. When we come in we have to come in and make the best of it. That's what we did tonight and that's how we won."
And that's why Kallenbach has 1,400 tickets on sale at the Bartlett athletic office this morning, beginning at 9 a.m.