Hyde Park handles Bartlett

A lapse in defensive discipline cost Bartlett's boys basketball team for the second time this week in a 68-56 loss to Hyde Park at the inaugural Tomcat Hoopfest at East Aurora High School Saturday.

Bartlett (10-7) never led the Thunderbirds (13-6), but the Hawks remained within a few possessions for most of the first half and pulled within 34-32 with 5:47 left in the third quarter on senior guard Donovan Coleman's drive to the hoop.

However, Hyde Park and dynamic senior point guard Fabyon Harris (5-foot-10) found holes in Bartlett's defensive rotation and finished the quarter on a 23-9 run to open a 57-41 lead.

Harris, who Thunderbirds coach Donnie Kirksey called "one of the best point guards in the state," shook off a 1-for-9 shooting start by canning 5-of-8 shots in the third quarter, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range, to finish with 19 points and 9 assists.

"I was rushing because today was my (19th) birthday," Harris said. "Then coach told me to slow down so my shots stopped falling... Then I had to keep shooting because I felt like I was on fire."

Said Bartlett senior guard Donovan Coleman of the lapse: "We lost a lot of our defensive concepts. It's just something we have to work on in practice and get better day by day."

The fact that Harris, an uncommitted Division-I prospect, got loose for six 3-point attempts in the third period bothered Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith as much as his team's lapse of boxing out stuck in his craw after a 67-56 loss to Neuqua Valley two days earlier.

"We lost discipline in the third quarter," Wolfsmith said. "This is multiple times now where we've had a period of time in a game when we lose our discipline and our execution on defense. We did against Neuqua Valley when we lost discipline on boxing out, which was our main goal, stopping those guys from getting second shots. And we did it against Harris. We didn't do a very good job rotating.

"A kid like that is going to get his shots. He's going to get his points. He's too good. What you need to do is limit the damage he does when he's not scoring the ball and that's what we didn't do. We have to be able to rise to the challenge for 32 minutes, which right now we're not able to do. We do it for about 20-25 minutes tops."

Bartlett was unable trim the deficit below 9 points in the fourth quarter. Hawks senior guard Luke Labedzki led all scorers with 22 points on 10-of-22 shooting. Senior Larry Whitaker finished with 13 points and 7 rebounds.

Hyde Park sophomore guard Treyshawn Jones finished with 18 points and junior Aqui Shareef added 11 points and 9 rebounds.