Batavia's defense dominates again
Batavia's 54-38 win over Kaneland Friday certainly had its share of flash - no-look passes from David Bryant, big blocked shots by Ricky Clopton and another blistering 3-point shooting display from Ben Potter - but it was the Bulldogs' defensive fundamentals that most encouraged the team.
"We're starting to find our groove again, we're starting to play defense," Clopton said. "Thirty-eight points against a pretty good team, I think that's pretty good."
Coupled with Geneva's loss at Sycamore, the Bulldogs (8-5, 3-2) are in the thick of the Western Sun race. They're tied in the loss column with the Vikings, chasing Glenbard South who has only lost 1 conference game in overtime to Geneva.
Kaneland (6-6, 1-4) shot a frigid 30.6 percent from the field, which follows Sycamore's 35 percent shooting against the Bulldogs Tuesday.
Clopton blocked 3 shots while battling inside against Kaneland's 6-foot-9 star center Dave Dudzinski, his friend from the same Velocity AAU team.
"Defensively this may have been Ricky Clopton's best game of his career here," Batavia coach Jim Roberts said. "I thought he made their guys work extremely hard for what they got and just continued to compete possession after possession."
The Knights stayed close throughout the first half and trailed 24-22 at halftime. The game turned in the third quarter, which Potter started with a 3-pointer.
Batavia outscored Kaneland 15-6 to take a 39-28 lead into the fourth.
"Third quarter offense production was horrible," Kaneland coach Dennis Hansen said. "Can't come out here and score 6 points and expect to stay with them. Great defense in the first half. Second half I thought we were settling for quick shots and we left them open a few times."
Potter made the Knights pay, draining six 3-pointers for the second straight game. He finished 6 of 9 from beyond the arc and led Batavia with 20 points and 7 rebounds.
Potter was quick to credit seniors on last year's team like Nick Fruendt and Phil Albrecht for teaching what he has needed this year in what is turning into a breakout season.
"All those guys had a tremendous work ethic," Potter said. "They were always staying after practice, working on their shots. I learned a lot from that. Showed me really how basketball is played at Batavia, different than most schools. I've had some great role models in my sophomore and junior years on varsity."
Many of Potter's open 3s were once again set up by Bryant. After dishing 10 assists against Sycamore, he had 7 Friday, and that doesn't count 3 other passes that led directly to Clopton getting to the free-throw line and scoring 4 more points.
Bryant added 14 points and Clopton scored 10. Batavia will go for its third win of the week tonight at the Rock Falls Shootout against Rock Island and guard Chasson Randle, one of the most highly recruited sophomores in the state who has the entire Big Ten among others chasing him.
Dudzinski led the Knights, scoring half their points, 19, to go with 10 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. Kaneland hosts Burlington Central tonight.
"This would have been a huge momentum swing, to take a win away from them at their place," Dudzinski said. "They just went on a run, we couldn't stop them and we're not real good at coming from behind."