Bartlett runs past St. Charles East

The schedule-makers couldn't have treated Bartlett any better.

Coming off a two-week layoff, what is the one team the Hawks wanted to see? The St. Charles East squad they drew Saturday night.

Not because of the Saints' losing record. It's because of the up-tempo style Brian Clodi's team prefers.

Bartlett didn't show any rust, scoring 22 points in the first quarter and leading by double figures most of the final three quarters in a 78-65 victory.

"We definitely like the up-and-down game," Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith said. "We prefer that style of game more than any other. East is one of the few teams that will run with us."

The Saints (4-9, 0-3) took their only leads of the game midway through the first quarter, the biggest at 14-9 on Zack Burns' 3-point play.

Bartlett (9-5, 3-1) scored the final 10 points of the first quarter and first two of the second to open a 24-16 lead. The Saints struggled all night taking care of the basketball, turning the ball over 8 times in both the first and second quarters and 27 times total.

"We are definitely disappointed with how we took care of the ball," Clodi said. "By now in January you should not be turning the ball over 27 times. Especially with the schedule we've played. We've seen quickness that Bartlett has. We definitely have to go back to the drawing boards. It's basic basketball."

The Saints did succeed in taking Luke Labedzki out of the game early, holding him to 4 points in the first half.

But several other Hawks stepped up, led by Donovan Coleman's 20 points and 15 from Larry Whitaker.

"A lot of teams know Luke is our primary scorer," Coleman said. "Everybody else has to step up and do their part. (I was) trying to penetrate and kick and taking what the defense gave me."

What St. Charles East's defense gave was way too many uncontested shots and penetration through the lane. Bartlett ended up shooting 52 percent (30 of 58) from the field.

"That kid (Coleman) went by us like we were standing still," Clodi said. "We didn't rotate. It turned into a layup drill."

Bartlett led 37-23 at halftime and extended the margin to as much as 17 in the second half. Led by Drew Vazquez and Kendall Stephens, the Saints outscored the Hawks 23-17 in the third quarter to trail 54-46 entering the fourth quarter.

Colton Kumerow's 3-pointer made it 62-55 with 6 minutes remaining, the closest the Saints got. Bartlett closed the game the way it started, making 10 of 16 shots in the fourth quarter, mostly on layups and other high-percentage looks.

"We got nice separation in that second quarter and played real good defense," Wolfsmith said. "I thought we let down defensively in that second half. We got lazy with our rotations. First game in two weeks not to bad. We shook the rust off a little."

Vazquez led the Saints with 20 points. Stephens added 10 while Burns scored 7 and led the Saints in rebounding with 9.

Labedzki (14 points) and Mike Banks (10) gave the Hawks four players in double figures. Frankie Cleope and Labedzki both had 4 of Bartlett's 16 steals.

"This is the kind of game you want after two weeks of practice," Wolfsmith said. "Hopefully we tighten up the defense a little bit and get ourselves in position to make a little run in the Upstate Eight."

South Elgin 79, Jacobs 67: This one could have reminded you of an old-fashioned barnfloor game.

Jacobs and South Elgin had a barnburner going for the first half, combining for 84 points and making 33 of 51 shots, including seven 3-pointers. As Jacobs coach Jim Hinkle said it was the Golden Eagles' best first half of basketball.

The game was tied at 42, but South Elgin stopped, dropped, and outscored the Eagles 19-8 in the third quarter by raising its defense and forcing Jacobs to shoot 36 percent for the second half.

Plus, the Storm's Tommy Childs matched Jacobs' second half shooting percentage for points as the Storm clipped Jacobs 79-67 in a nonconference boys basketball matchup in Algonquin Saturday night.

And to think, South Elgin (11-4) held Upstate Eight Conference foe St. Charles North to just 44 points Tuesday night.

"I don't think we've ever been 42-42 at the half. It's unbelievable," said Storm coach Chaz Taft. "We talked about how we didn't get one single digit quarter in the first half. So we said in the third quarter we have to come out and get some stops, got to get consecutive stops in a row, and we gotta hold them to a single digit quarter. We were right on target there."

South Elgin hit its target, with 8 Jacobs points in the third and kept the hot hand. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Sam Jordt and Childs gave the Storm a 48-44 lead around the 4-minute mark. Then Childs, who scored 11 in the quarter, scored on a layup that began a 23-6 run with 2:55 left. He hit back-to-back 3-pointers, including a near-half court shot at the buzzer that continued the run into the fourth, when he and Sam Sutter (17 points) put Jacobs down 71-50 with under 6 minutes remaining.

"Our defense was consistent all night. It was poor all four quarters," Hinkle said. "In the third quarter we tried to go to a zone for a while and they blew the game open. It really wasn't because the zone was better or worse, it was because we didn't shoot as well and our defense wasn't good all night.

"Their quickness was able to break us down and we tried to stop them one-on-one instead of getting and one-and-help, one-and-help and one-and-help, and we weren't able to do that."

That applied to Childs. His 18 first-half points helped the game see saw until halftime, when the most either team led was by 6. At one point, Childs hit consecutive 3-pointers, and Brooks then hit one to make it 17-14 Jacobs with 3:30 left in the first. That's basically how the half went between the two teams, except South Elgin stayed hot, shooting just under 61 percent for the game. Childs nailed five 3-pointers, and when he wasn't decimating Jacobs from the perimeter, he was silky smooth going to the hoop.

- Steve Nichols