Batavia shoots past Glenbard South
Batavia shot so well, Glenbard South never had a chance to make up its second-half deficit.
Batavia won the teams' Western Sun Conference matchup 64-46 Friday night in Glen Ellyn. For the game Batavia (5-2, 2-1) shot 23 of 36 while the Raiders shot 13 of 50.
"We have a bunch of unselfish players on our squad and we passed up numerous shots to get better looks," Batavia forward Ricky Clopton said. "Tonight was just a total team effort. On all my three years I am not sure we have played a better team game than tonight."
The Raiders stayed close in the first half, trailing 31-25 at the break while shooting 13 of 16 from the free-throw line. They only shot 6 free throws in the second half.
"Our intensity got better in the second half and we did a better job closing out on their shooters and were in better position," Batavia coach Jim Roberts said. "We really limited them in the second half from the free-throw line because of our better defense."
Clopton had one of his better games of the season, finishing with 22 points, 3 assists and 6 rebounds. The offense went through Clopton much of the game as he posted up on the block and either looked for his own shot or got double-teamed and found the open man.
But Clopton didn't care about his own personal stats.
"I don't care what happens as long as we get the 'W,'" Clopton said. "It doesn't matter who scores or who gets the stats, all that matters at the end of the day is the win."
Glenbard South (3-4, 1-3) had trouble taking care of the ball, turning the ball over 20 times in the game. It also didn't help that the Raiders let the Bulldgos go on an 8-2 run in the first two minutes of the third quarter, putting them up by double digits.
"I am proud of the way we played in the first half," Glenbard South coach Wade Hardtke said. "It is a big step for our team playing well against a good, solid team like them. We had a little bit of trouble with our ballhandling and that hurt us, but overall, we played OK. We will be all right. It definitely didn't help us that they shot so well from the floor tonight."
Pat Childs led the Raiders with 13 points while Dylan Rheault had 7 rebounds in the loss.