Bartlett knocks off St. Charles East for 8th straight

The streaking St. Charles East boys basketball team, which had won 8 of its last 12 games, came into its game at Bartlett prepared.

But Bartlett was able to dig deep in the end to take a 61-56 win in Upstate Eight Conference action on Friday.

With 12.2 seconds left on the clock Phil Kohlhagen (8 points) cut a 7-point Saints deficit just over a minute earlier down to just two at 58-56.

But after Luke Labedzki hit 1 of 2 from the free-throw line Larry Whitaker (8 points) took a chance going in for the steal and forcing the Saints to foul. He sank a pair from the line to secure the Hawks' eighth straight victory.

"What Larry did was a gamble but it was a good gamble in the end," said Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith.

After Kohlhagen took a steal down for a layup to give East a 50-49 lead, the Hawks (18-7, 6-3) went on a 8-0 run to take a 57-50 lead thanks to 3-pointers from Labedzki and Frankie Cleope.

Cleope went on a tear in the fourth hitting three from behind the arc and tallying 14 of his team-high 18 points in the quarter.

"I was feeling good," Cleope said. "My teammates just did a great job getting me the ball with some good looks."

"You got to give (Cleope) some credit. He killed us in the fourth quarter," said East coach Brian Clodi.

The Saints (8-16, 3-6) held the lead most of the first half and took a 25-22 lead into halftime thanks to Kevin Senechalle, who tallied 13 points in the half, 9 in the first quarter. But Senechalle was held to just 6 points in the second half ending his night with a game-high 19 points.

"We're proud of our guys," Clodi said. "But we got to get the ball to Kevin more in the second half."

Labedzki tallied 18 points including five 3-pointers and Marc Little finished with 11 points for the Hawks. Tim Russell finished with 17 points and Zach Scott 10 for the Saints.