Batavia's 3s sink Spartans

St. Francis opened up against Batavia in a zone.

The Bulldogs' boys basketball team responded with a zone of its own; that is, a cannot-miss zone. Ben Potter drained five of the Bulldogs' eight 3-pointers in the opening half as the squad romped to the title of the Ken Peddy Windmill City Classic for the eighth year in a row with a 57-46 victory over the Spartans Saturday night in Batavia.

Potter hit his first three salvos from beyond the arc, scoring all 15 of his career-high 22 points from three-land in the first half that ended with Batavia leading 39-19. The senior guard had been the Bulldogs' first or second man off the bench the past two seasons.

"I was just waiting for Nick (Fruendt) and the rest of them to graduate," Potter said. "We didn't think they were going to play zone against us."

"Ben has worked hard to get where he is," Batavia coach Jim Roberts said. "He really shot the ball well."

In claiming the Most Valuable Player award, Batavia senior David Bryant has had a learn a new craft. The four-year varsity member has inherited the point-guard duties, and he augmented his 5 points with 7 rebounds and 5 assists to engineer the early Batavia assault.

"I worked on my ball-handling a lot during the summer," Bryant said. "Ben Potter obviously hit some big shots."

Batavia scored 13 of the first 15 points, but St. Francis responded with an 8-0 run to get within three with two-plus minutes to play in the opening quarter. But Bryant scored all of his points on a putback and 3-pointer to give the Bulldogs a 20-12 cushion after one.

, and the Spartans were in an even bigger hole moments later.

Batavia held St. Francis without a conventional field goal in the second quarter, racing to its 20-point halftime bulge when Jordan Coffey converted a Bryant pass for a 3-point play in the final second.

David Palash and Clint Pierce had seven combined 3-pointers to pace St. Francis with 15 and 13 points, respectively, but Potter had the last of his career-best with a runner in the lane with 5:23 to play to symbolically ice the game.