Bartlett comes up just short at East Aurora
For three focused quarters of basketball, Bartlett moved itself into position to claim a significant early-season victory in the heated atmosphere that always greets teams at East Aurora.
Then the visiting Hawks wobbled slightly, East Aurora improved and Bartlett's victory chance slipped away, eventually by only a 71-70 margin. But that doesn't mean the Hawks felt the experience in this Upstate Eight Conference game was wasted.
"You want to play games like this," Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith said. "Obviously you want to come out on the winning end. But that's a sectional atmosphere out there. There's always a great crowd at East. They have an excellent, athletic team with Division I players. We have Division I players on our team going toe-to-toe."
Small things combined in those final minutes to plague the Hawks (5-3, 2-1 Upstate Eight.) There were a couple of questionable shots taken. There were two East Aurora offensive rebounds on missed free throws.
"I would agree with you that we had a few shots down the stretch that should not have gone up," Wolfsmith said. "But overall, I thought we had good shot selection. Down the stretch, I think we got tight. But I think we also got lulled into a sense because we were getting foul calls on those same shots earlier in the game. At the end, they let them play the game a little more."
But mostly there was Ryan Boatright, who came in after sitting the second half of the third quarter and the start of the fourth with four fouls. Boatright eventually fouled out, but not before he scored 9 points in the fourth quarter and finished by leading all players with 29 points.
East Aurora's Snoop Viser also sat most of the third quarter with four fouls and he scored 5 points in the fourth quarter and finished with 13. Tramelle Weathersby added 6 of his 14 points in that final quarter - a quarter in which the Tomcats outscored the Hawks 26-20.
East Aurora (5-2, 1-0) was playing its first home game of the season. The Tomcats now have six more home games in a row before hitting the road again.
"These terms and sayings - there's a reason why you have them - and this was one we pulled out of the fire," East Aurora coach Wendell Jeffries said. "They were hungrier than us at the start of the game. They played like the Tomcats on the Tomcats' floor. We had to get on some players at halftime and then they came out and played harder in the second half."
Luke Labedzki hit four 3-pointers and led Barlett with 18 points. Mike Banks scored 16 and Frankie Cleope 11 for the Hawks.
Bartlett's biggest lead came with 1:42 to play in the third quarter when Lance Whitaker scored and the Hawks led 48-41. East Aurora's key run was a 7-0 burst midway though the fourth quarter that ended with the hosts leading 63-62 - and the Tomcats never trailed the rest of the way.
"My hope was to be in it to the end," Wolfsmith said. "You come to a team like East Aurora, a ranked team, and play them toe-to-toe for four quarters and I was impressed with that."
Girls basketball
Hampshire 71, Rockford East 20: Hampshire moved to 2-0 at the Harlem Christmas Classic with an easy win. The Whip-Purs (11-0) led 32-6 after one quarter and cruised from there. Chrissy Heine led four Hampshire players in double figures with 16 points. Jessica Van Dorin added 15, all on 3-pointers. She now has nine 3-pointers in the two games at Harlem. Alex Dumoulin had 12 points for the Whips and Karla Vietinghoff added 10.
Elgin Academy 45, Harvest Christian 23: Alyssa Pena scored 20 points to lead the Hilltoppers to a nonconference win. Bridget Keslinke had 9 points for Elgin Academy.
Girls gymnastics
Elgin/Larkin at Niles West: The Elgin/Larkin co-op team competed at the Niles West Invitational Thursday. The team's top performer was Brianne Skwers, who had an 8.15 score and a ninth-place finish on the vault.