Batavia opens up in second half, blows out Geneva
Twenty years from now when Jim Roberts is teaching the 2029 Bulldogs, the coach should blow the dust off the tape and show his team the second half of Batavia's 2009 regional opener.
It's going to look as good to Roberts and the Bulldog faithful then as it did Wednesday night.
Batavia overcame Geneva's 3-point halftime lead with its best half of the season, stunning the Vikings 41-13 after intermission. The Bulldogs put on a clinic on both ends of the court to win going away, 59-34.
Not only did the Bulldogs (19-7) avoid a third loss to Geneva (21-7), they'll get a crack at top-seed Neuqua Valley (28-1) Friday night in the Class 4A Batavia regional championship game.
All the Bulldogs need to do Friday is bottle Wednesday's second half. They hit 10 of 14 from the field and 17 of 20 from the free-throw line while taking Geneva out of its patient offense and forcing them to the perimeter, where they shot an ice-cold 5 of 26 after halftime.
"I was happy if we beat them by 1," Batavia junior Ricky Clopton said. "I was real surprised. We shot awesome, we played good defense again. I think we always play good defense against them, this time our shots fell. Perfect time of the season to do it."
Trailing 21-18 after a back-and-forth first half, Adam LeTourneau and Ben Potter set the tone for the rest of the night with a pair of 3-pointers in the first 45 seconds of the third quarter for a 24-21 lead.
The Bulldogs were just getting warmed up. Geneva uncharacteristically misfired on a couple quick shots, then for the second time fouled Ben Potter on a 3-point attempt. Potter also had 3 assists in the quarter.
Levi Maxey scored 6 points, and David Bryant's drive with 13 seconds left capped a 21-6 third quarter and put Batavia up 39-27.
"Batavia played one heck of a second half," Geneva coach Phil Ralston said. "I'm not sure I've had many teams that have been smoked that bad in a second half. Jim and his kids deserve a lot of credit."
Jeremy D'Amico's 3-pointer briefly cut Batavia's lead to 41-32, but the Bulldogs answered with the next 14 points. The 55-32 spread had the Batavia side rise with a standing ovation while the Geneva fans headed for the exits.
"It's not the way we wanted to go down," said Ralston, whose first year at Geneva included a share of the Western Sun Conference championship and two tournament titles.
"It would be tough for the team we have to come from a big deficit like that. We didn't do a good job of working to get the ball inside. We were shooting perimeter shots and we were one and done. That's a recipe for disaster. That's why it unraveled."
Bryant led all scorers with 20 points, hitting a pair of 3s and all 8 of his free throws. Potter added 16, LeTourneau 9 and Maxey 8 as he continued his strong play off the bench.
The Bulldogs also dominated on the boards, 29-17. Clopton led the way with 9, Bryant 6 and LeTourneau 5, while D'Amico grabbed 9 of Geneva's 17.
D'Amico also scored 17 points in his final game. Rob Tauscher hit two 3-pointers in the first quarter to finish with 6.
"I don't think a kid like D'Amico, I don't know if you ever shut him down," Roberts said. "He's very deceptive and uses screens well, but I thought we did a good job of limiting them to one shot, and we really took care of the ball in transition."