Batavia wins consolation title at Elgin
As basketball problems go - lousy shooting, lackluster defense, sloppy ballhandling - there's many worse things than closing out blowout wins.
After all, think of all the things you did right to build that lead, and of course it's still a victory.
That's where Batavia stands after winning three straight games at the Elgin Holiday Tournament, the most recent 59-46 over Highland Park Saturday to claim the consolation championship.
Sizzling 3-point shooting from Jesse Coffey, another 20-point effort by Ricky Clopton and a dominating team effort on the glass put the Bulldogs ahead 47-21 at one point in the third quarter.
Led by 29 points from former Chicago Bull Toni Kukoc's son Marin, Highland Park (5-7) cut that 26-point deficit to 55-45 with a minute to go. That was a near copy of Batavia's win Wednesday when Glenbrook South trimmed a 17-point deficit to 7.
Batavia (8-4) certainly didn't make light of its fourth-quarter problems, but the Bulldogs also took time to enjoy all the things they did so well.
"I was very proud of our kids," Batavia coach Jim Roberts said. "I told the guys please don't take this situation for granted because it was three nice wins. When you come in and get the beat the first night it's awful easy to play the rest of the tournament on your heels. I thought our guys did an excellent job of trying to get better each night."
Batavia destroyed the Giants on the boards, outrebounding them 37-13. Every Batavia starter grabbed at least 5, led by Clopton, Levi Maxey and Elliot Vaughn with 7 each. Sophomore Cole Gardner came off the bench and added 4.
"We came out hoping we could keep them off the boards and use our size to our advantage," Gardner said.
The Bulldogs also shot the ball extremely well, hitting over 50 percent from the field (22 of 42). Clopton, who scored 23, 16, 28 and 20 points in the four tournament games, led the way at 8 of 10.
It took eight seconds for Coffey to let Highland Park know what kind of game it was going to be when the junior drilled his first of six 3-pointers.
Coffey's second 3 came a minute later, then at the 5:19 mark Coffey dropped his third for a 9-2 lead. He finished Batavia's first half with his fifth 3-pointer making the score 33-14, outscoring the Giants by himself.
"Once you get in flow of the game and rhythm you start hitting shots and feel good and teammates keep finding you," Coffey said. "I felt good, I felt in rhythm and just kept knocking them down."
Even Coffey's misses proved productive. Vaughn grabbed the first miss and scored.
Highland Park didn't get much going besides Marin Kukoc. Marin scored 18 of the Giants' first 21 points and his 29 were one shy of his career high.
"I loved the way he played, assertive, scored in a variety of ways," Highland Park coach Paul Harris said. "When we are struggling a little part of his role is to get us going and he was up to the challenge today.
"It was a tale of two halves, we just dug ourselves a little too bit of a hole. Give them a lot of credit. Day after Christmas they were ready to go. They looked real sharp early."