Lydon lifts Batavia past Oswego East
Batavia's girls basketball team gave head coach Tim DeBruycker just what he wanted for his 40th birthday Tuesday night - a quality win over a quality team.
Senior guard/forward Kara Lydon poured in a season-high 22 points and senior forward Natalie Tarter added 17 to lift the Bulldogs (16-2) to a convincing 59-40 nonconference victory over Oswego East (17-5) in Batavia.
"We've lost twice on his birthday before so it was time to get a win for him," said Lydon, who made 9 of her 14 field-goal attempts, including a pair of 3-pointers. "It was really fun and it was a good game."
Before tip-off, every Batavia player had the number 40 taped to the back of their warmup jerseys.
It appeared for a while that the Bulldogs might be on a 40-point pace in the opening quarter.
Tarter's 3-point play gave Batavia an 11-3 lead midway through the period, and the Bulldogs scored the last 9 points of the quarter to extend the margin to 20-5.
Lydon netted 5 of those points over the final 49 seconds, including a 3-pointer with three seconds remaining in the quarter.
"As a pure jump shooter, she'll make you pay," said DeBruycker. "Kara has been getting to the point where she is a weapon. She's realizing how to get her feet set and how to get her shot off."
Batavia stretched its lead to as many as 19 early in the second quarter (26-7) before the Wolves went on a 17-3 surge to close within 29-24 at halftime.
Jasmine Davis (team-high 16 points) and 6-2 center Ivory Russell (7 points, 8 rebounds) combined for 14 second-quarter points as the Wolves earned an 11-2 rebounding edge.
"We had a little letdown in the second quarter but you've got to give Oswego East credit," said DeBruycker. "They came out with a little fire and that's a testament to their athleticism. They didn't come in here and just roll over. We had to beat them tonight - and we did that in the third quarter."
Once again, the Bulldogs came out smoking to begin the quarter, forcing 5 turnovers and scoring 8 of the first 10 points while building their lead back to double digits at 38-26 following another Lydon 3-pointer.
"We moved the ball great and got some easy layups against the zone trap, then we just finished and kept our composure," said DeBruycker, who received 40 different birthday items from every one of his players. "I got 40 tees, 40 pennies and 40 Twix bars."
Sara Fruendt (7 points, 3 steals), Becca Heimsath (6 points) and Melissa Norville (5 points, 8 rebounds, 6 steals) also contributed for the Bulldogs, who will learn about their Class 4A sectional seeding tonight.
"I hope we get a 3 or 4 seed," said DeBruycker. "I think Bolingbrook and Hinsdale Central have the 1-2 (seeds) locked up but after that, Waubonsie Valley, us and Oswego East all have a little bit of a beef.
"We just beat one of those teams by 19 (points) tonight. And we made them play our game."