Bartlett pressure rattles Streamwood

Bartlett wanted to make sure to get ball pressure on Streamwood.

Although the Hawks may have gone a little overboard at times, the pressure was certainly there as Bartlett forced 31 turnovers in Saturday's 69-50 rout at Streamwood in Upstate Eight Conference girls basketball action.

The Hawks used the turnovers to score in bunches, helping erase a poor defensive effort in Thursday night's 67-56 loss.

"(Defense) was one of our main focuses," said Bartlett freshman Ashley Santos, who finished with 6 steals. "Our defense needed to be aggressive. We did a good job on defense and that's exactly what we had to do."

Streamwood (6-16, 1-5) turned the ball over 8 times in the first quarter and Bartlett took a 20-11 advantage. Nine turnovers in the second quarter allowed Bartlett (13-8, 5-2) to go up 41-24 at the half. The Hawks finished with 20 steals in the game.

Streamwood shot 34.7 percent (16 of 46) against Bartlett, but the Hawks' main stat was holding The Sabres to only 6 total shot attempts in the second quarter. The Hawks outscored Streamwood 21-13 in the second quarter, with Alexa Tovella scoring all 5 of her points in the period.

"We knew they were going to press us," said Streamwood coach George Rosner, who had several former players from various decades in attendance. "We had to take care of the ball as best we could."

But the aggressive attack did lead to some problems for Bartlett as well. The Sabres went to the free-throw line 23 times in the game, scoring 16 points from the foul line. Also, Bartlett's swarming pressure on the perimeter allowed senior Arielle Gallione to have a career night.

Gallione led all scorers with a career-high 16 points, including scoring 8 of Streamwood's 11 first-quarter points. The center finished the first half with 14 of the Sabres' 24 points, getting several open looks at the basket.

"I was getting good looks underneath," she said. "I really wasn't their main focus. They were focusing on the press."

Bartlett had no shortage of points, though. Santos (3 assists) shot 70 (7 of 10) percent from the floor, including draining a 3-pointer as time expired in the first half, and finished with 15 points. Center Jacki Gulczynski (8 rebounds) also scored 15 points going 5 of 9 from the floor. Freshman Haley Videckis chipped in 9 points and 3 steals off the bench.

"The kids played hard," Bartlett coach Denise Sarna said. "We had a little too many fouls for my liking. We need to control ourselves a little more."