Bartlett dumps Elgin 59-42 in matinee affair
Faced with a rare 12:30 p.m. tipoff 13 hours after a night game, Bartlett boys basketball coach Jim Wolfsmith abandoned his normal substitution pattern in an Upstate Eight Conference game against Elgin at sparsely populated Chesbrough Field House on Saturday.
Wolfsmith rested his starters for most or all of the second quarter, including top scorers Marc Little and Luke Labedzki, to keep their legs fresh for the second half. Meanwhile, reserves Tim Rendall, Mark McQuiston, Mike Banks, Frankie Cleope and Mark Roszkowiak played most of the second period and forged a 27-25 halftime lead, helped by the fact Elgin guard Tom Roth was forced to the bench with 3 fouls with 6:29 left in the quarter.
A rested Labedzki then scored 10 of his 13 points in the second half and Little scored all of his game-high 16 after the break - including 12 in the fourth quarter - to lead the Hawks to a 59-42 victory over the Maroons. It was the fifth straight victory for Bartlett (16-7, 5-3), a season high.
"It helped a lot because I was tired," Labedzki said of the rest. "(Friday) night was an emotional game (an 83-74 upset of UEC-leading East Aurora). I'm tired. I played a lot of minutes. I rested up in the second quarter and got my shot going in the third."
Elgin, which last played on Thursday, grabbed its only lead of the second half when Roth sank a 3-pointer from the top of the arc and followed with a hanging jumper that put the Maroons ahead 32-31 with 4:36 left in the third quarter.
Bartlett responded with a 13-2 run to take control of the game, spurred on by a pair of Labedzki jumpers and 2 fast-break buckets from Little.
Little missed his first 7 shots of the game but found his stroke and canned 7 of the last 8 shot attempts he took. "I felt like I had my legs," Little said. "(Coach) gave me a chance to rest and I felt good."
Elgin's Marcus Redburg scored 10 points, but suffered through an 0-for-10 field goal drought in the middle two quarters.
"They were playing pretty good defense," Redburg said. "Labedzki was really doing a great job of fronting and denying me the ball. Tommy was in foul trouble in the first half, and we really couldn't get into our offense. Because of their press we probably only set up our offense five times."
"The loss was the fourth straight for Elgin (9-14, 2-6).
"A lot of it is mental," Maroons coach Mike Sitter said of slump. "We just can't stay mentally strong for four quarters right now. Something bad goes wrong and we give up on a possession. There are a couple of players missing some heart. It's getting kind of late. They'd better step up and find it."
Cleope came off the bench in the first half and sank his first 4 shot attempts, including three 3-pointers. He finished with 11 points.
"It was tough starting out without that intensity," Cleope said of the 12:30 p.m. start time. "We're not used to playing afternoon games, so coach challenged us to come out strong. I think we did that today."
Roth finished with 9 points and Steve Edwards added 7 for the Maroons.