Bartlett withstands Warren's late rally

It was bad, but Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith wanted to know just how bad.

So midway through the fourth quarter on Wednesday night at Warren, he popped over to the scorer's table to get the official report.

"I wanted to know what the score was at the end of the third quarter," Wolfsmith said. "I wanted to know what our lead was."

Answer: 15 points.

But when Wolfsmith asked his question, his team was clinging to a 4-point lead and Warren seemed to have plenty of gas left in the tank to cut it down further.

"I was asking how big our lead had been so that I would know how much to yell (at his players in the locker room)," Wolfsmith said with a laugh.

Wolfsmith could afford to joke about it after the game.

His team wound up withstanding Warren's furious rally en route to a 69-65 victory in the opener for both teams at the Warren Thanksgiving Tournament.

The Hawks got a game-high 24 points from guard Donovan Coleman as well as 13 points from guard Mike Banks.

"We lost our composure a little bit," said Coleman, who transferred to Bartlett this year from Glenbard East. "We were trying to put it back together by calling a few timeouts but we just kept playing faster than we should have."

Coleman said that Warren's surprise fullcourt press had a little something to do with the hectic pace.

About as soon as the Blue Devils slapped on their press, Bartlett turned the ball over. And before the Hawks could say "Bye-bye big lead," Warren pumped out a 14-5 run that cut a 53-38 deficit at the end of the third quarter, to a much more manageable 6-point disadvantage (58-52) with 5:44 remaining.

"One of the positives of the game was that it was a nice comeback," said Warren coach Chuck Ramsey, who lost all five starters from last year's sectional runner-up, including Illinois Mr. Basketball Brandon Paul. "But when we had chances to get the lead, we'd turn the ball over. We created too big of a hole for ourselves. We had a good start to the game and a good finish, but in between we struggled."

Meanwhile, that's when Bartlett was busy building its lead.

The Hawks dominated the third quarter, outscoring Warren 17-7. Hot shooting was the key. Bartlett hit nearly 60 percent of its shots in the quarter.

"We've got some things to work on, but I'll take a win in the first game of the season," Wolfsmith said. "Warren is a proud program and I'm glad we got these guys at the beginning of the year because by the end of the year they're going to be darn good."

Ramsey would probably concur. He said prior to the season that it would take some time for his team to come together. He's got a roster full of inexperienced players, including five sophomores.

Then again, a couple of Blue Devils did seem to be hitting some of their marks already.

Senior forward Shahron Thomas led Warren with a career-high 21 points and was key in the comeback. Ditto for junior guard Andra Manson, who finished with 14 points.

"We played hard and strong to get back into the game," Thomas said. "We played better toward the end because we were actually playing like a team."