Batavia blocks its way by Crystal Lake South
Like meatloaf, there is far more than one recipe to win a basketball game.
In the championship game of the Ken Peddy Batavia Thanksgiving tournament on Saturday night, the host Bulldogs held a block party. Batavia harassed Crystal Lake South into a miserable first-half performance, forcing 10 missed 3-point attempts and blocking 7 more shots - almost all of them in the paint - as the Gators could manage a mere 15 points in consecutive single-digit quarters.
The Bulldogs missed 15 shots of their own in the first two quarters but still managed five 3-pointers in building a 14-point spread at the intermission en route to a 60-55 victory over Crystal Lake South in Batavia.
"We're a very long team," said senior forward Ricky Clopton, who had 3 of the Bulldogs' rejections, including two in back-to-back fashion. "Tonight was my night. Offensively, we tried to play well as a team. We jumped out to the big lead and held on from there."
Adam LeTourneau and Clopton were the mainstays for the Bulldogs' offense. The duo combined for 31 points with the former, an all-tournament selection, draining three 3-pointers to lead the way with 16, while Clopton pitched in with 15 points and 7 rebounds.
LeTourneau had back-to-back field goals from beyond the arc to give Batavia a 15-4 lead, and if it were not for Kevin Rogers' consecutive 3-pointers to end the first and begin the second quarter, Crystal Lake South (2-1) would have had single digits at the break.
It was not the homecoming former Batavia player Dan DeBruycker envisioned. DeBruycker, whose older brother Tim is the Bulldogs' head girls basketball coach, watched helplessly as the interior defense of Batavia wrecked havoc.
"The shots that were blocked around the rim affected us defensively," said DeBruycker. "Their height took over. They went on to hit a bunch of threes; our defensive intensity wasn't where it needed to be."
LeTourneau had the last of his opening-half 3-pointers to give Batavia a 29-15 lead at halftime, but the pace changed dramatically in the second half. Crystal Lake South more than duplicated its first-half output in the third quarter alone, only to see Batavia maintain its double-digit lead by upping the Gators' production by one.
Rogers led all players with 20 points, and Alex Macaulay, the Gators' lone senior, added 14 points; the Gators erupted for 24 points in the final quarter, slicing the Bulldogs' lead to single digits on a host of occasions.
But Batavia, with tournament MVP Sam Shump scoring the final four, closed out Crystal Lake South from the free-throw line.
"(The Gators) are a group of kids you can't give any room to or they'll make you pay," said Batavia coach Jim Roberts. "I thought we got better in each game (of the tournament). I thought this was our postmen's best game."