Crystal Lake South shuts out Batavia in fourth quarter
The latest installment of the Ken Peddy Classic will not go down as one of the finer moments in Batavia basketball lore.
"I've been better," Batavia boys coach Jim Roberts said in his first comments after witnessing his team fail to score in the fourth quarter of a 48-38 loss to Crystal Lake South on Saturday night.
King and St. Francis were declared the co-champions of the four-team tournament.
Batavia and Crystal Lake South both finished with 1-2 records.
The Bulldogs' Mike Jorgensen hit a jumper with 49 seconds remaining in the third quarter, but Crystal Lake South was impenetrable in the final quarter.
Batavia missed all 11 of its field-goal attempts, did not go to the foul line and turned the ball over eight times.
Crystal Lake South reversed its 10-point third-quarter hole by scoring all 20 points in the final quarter to win by an equal margin.
The Bulldogs suffered only four first-half turnovers as twin posts Cole Gardner and Elliott Vaughn controlled the paint.
The all-tournament selections each finished with 11 points to lead Batavia, but the Gators neutralized their inside presence in the second half.
Batavia, which built 15-point leads on four separate occasions, managed to score only 8 second-half points after taking a 30-15 advantage into the intermission.
"This is definitely a special win for me and the program," said Crystal Lake coach Dan DeBruycker, a Batavia native and graduate. "We just talked about one possession at a time (during halftime). Being able to defend the two post players (in the second half) was awesome."
The Gators' Kevin Rogers metaphorically set the tone for the complete reversal of fortune.
Held scoreless in the opening half, the forward pumped in 19 points, hitting four 3-pointers, to jump-start the Crystal Lake South comeback.
"We just knew we could come back because we know we have the confidence in ourselves," Rogers said. "I have the green light all the time (from beyond the arc). They just started falling in the second half."
Tyler Kretchmer augmented Rogers' game-high output by keeping the Gators in the contest with 10 of their 15 first-half points.
The senior post ended with 14 points; none of the other six Gators who scored had more than one field goal.
"They kept coming at us, and we didn't react to it," Roberts said. "We were stagnant (offensively). I don't think we did a very good job (defensively) either. We talked about fool's gold at halftime."