Stone helps Batavia bounce back
Kelsey Stone had the perfect tonic to forget her last game.
"I felt like I let the team down," the Batavia junior post said.
Friday night in the Bulldogs' 48-43 Western Sun Conference victory over visiting Rochelle, Stone had game highs of 15 points and 14 rebounds to ease the sting of a 52-49 defeat at Yorkville to open the league season on Tuesday.
"I thought it was important to come back," Stone said after the Batavia girls basketball team held cold-shooting Rochelle scoreless over the last three minutes to secure the victory. "I needed to step it back up."
Sylvia Slaughter, who came off the bench to pace the Hubs with 11 points, had a steal and fed Olivia Caron for an uncontested field goal to forge the final tie of the game at 43-43.
On a night when both teams struggled to find offensive rhythm amid of a sea of missed field goals, Batavia (4-1, 1-1) prevailed at the free-throw line.
Four-year starter Sara Fruendt (8 points, 7 rebounds) calmly sank both ends of the bonus four seconds after the Hubs' final field to give Batavia the lead for good at 45-43.
"The game was on the line," said Fruendt. "I had to keep my composure and give us the lead. We weren't about to let them back into the game."
Rochelle had several chances down the stretch to find the equalizer, but three more misses and a costly moving pick proved insurmountable.
Batavia harassed the Hubs into trying bookend quarters from the field.
Rochelle misfired on 12 of its 14 field-goal attempts in the fourth quarter after closing out the opening quarter with misses on 16 of 17 chances.
For the game Rochelle went 18-for-64 from the field (28 percent) as Batavia, which suffered its own shooting woes by going 16-for-50 (32 percent), erased its bad memories from Tuesday night with lockdown defense.
"I was proud of the fact that they made the adjustments that they didn't make Tuesday night," Batavia coach Tim DeBruycker said. "We did what we needed to do down the stretch. I don't think Kelsey played as well as she could on Tuesday night. She's not a true center, but I don't have anybody bigger."
Stone had 6 straight first-quarter points to open the game, and Liz Barnes' 3-pointer and split free throws gave Batavia a 12-5 lead after one.
But after a 2-for-19 first quarter performance, Rochelle found the range in the second quarter.
The Hubs' 50 percent marksmanship in the second, which included three 3-pointers, enabled them to climb to within 23-22 at the intermission.
There were six lead changes on as many field goals to close out the third quarter, but Batavia freshman point guard Sami Villarreal had all 6 of her points after halftime and 5 crucial defensive rebounds in the final quarter to deny Rochelle.