Batavia battles back to down Joliet
ROCK FALLS - Batavia literally stole one from the Steelmen here Saturday.
Junior Elliot Vaughn and senior Adam LeTourneau each produced clutch steals in the final minute to lead the streaking Bulldogs to a 48-44 victory over Joliet at the Rock Falls Shootout Saturday.
The win was the sixth straight for Batavia (11-4), which notched yet another win over a quality opponent. Joliet (13-4), which is 4-0 in the Southwest Suburban Conference's Blue Division, was coming off a win over Sandburg on Friday night.
"I thought a lot of heart was shown against a very talented team," Batavia coach Jim Roberts said. "There were a couple of times it would have been easy to kind of fade into the woodwork, but I thought our kids showed a lot of grit, determination and a lot of character stepping up."
A close game throughout became tied yet again when junior guard Jesse Coffey connected from 3-point range with 1:47 left in the game, knotting the score at 44.
Joliet turned the ball over and the Bulldogs took another shot that missed and was rebounded by Joliet's Brian Byrd. However, Vaughn made a heady play when he grabbed the ball from Byrd before he could make the outlet pass.
Vaughn was fouled to boot, and he sank 2 bonus free throws to give Batavia a 46-44 lead with 56.8 seconds to play.
"I didn't quit on the ball," Vaughn said. "(Byrd) spun around and left it open, so I went after it and grabbed it. Sure enough, I got it and they fouled me."
Joliet coach Luke Yaklich called timeout with 36.7 seconds to play, but LeTourneau short-circuited any chance Joliet had of tying the game when he poked the ball away from a guard on the perimeter, sprawled on the floor to grab the loose ball and alertly called timeout with 22.5 showing on the clock.
"I just wanted to get hands in the passing lanes, put pressure on him and try to get him to make a mistake handling the ball," LeTourneau said. "And it worked."
Said Vaughn: "Last night at Kaneland (LeTourneau) did the same thing. He's coming up big."
The Steelmen were forced to foul, and Ricky Clopton sank 2 bonus free throws to seal the win for Batavia.
The Bulldogs, who normally shoot 63 percent from the free-throw line, sank 11 of 17 tries, including all 4 attempts in the final quarter.
"Ricky, Elliot - they all hit some big throws," Roberts said.
Clopton led all scorers with 15 points and Vaughn added 12 for the Bulldogs.
Joliet concurred with Roberts as far as how gritty the determined Bulldogs played.
"We knew they were going to have a good defense and good energy, so we needed to come out with energy," said Steelmen senior Anthony Shoemaker, who led Joliet with 13 points and 8 rebounds. "But they wanted it more than us today. We didn't do what we had to do to win the game."