Batavia rallies by St. Charles East
The referee’s whistle is a familiar tune for Batavia center Cole Gardner in what has been a foul-plagued season.
But when the Bulldog junior expected one the most Thursday night — after yanking down a key offensive rebound over the back of St. Charles East standout Kendall Stephens and scoring a go-ahead basket with less than two minutes left — he didn’t hear one.
“I was kind of surprised they didn’t call a foul there, because they were calling little things all night on me and I was getting frustrated,” Gardner said.
The basket put Batavia ahead 53-51 and set the stage for the Bulldogs to hold on in the final minute and deliver a crushing 57-53 blow to the Saints’ Upstate Eight River Division hopes.
Gardner’s powerful rebound and putback was critical because a foul would have been his fifth, and Batavia would have been without its aggressive center with two minutes left in a tie game.
“That was a big momentum shift for us,” Batavia coach Jim Roberts said of Gardner’s basket. “He’s a big, strong man and very capable of doing that.”
After Johnny Hondlik (14 points) scored inside to tie the game for St. Charles East, Batavia slipped ahead at the 1:16 mark when guard Jesse Coffey hit one of two free throws for the most important of his team-high 21 points.
St. Charles East (10-11, 6-3) tried to counter with Stephens (game-high 23 points) looking for his fifth 3-pointer of the night, but it bounded off the rim and Gardner (12 points) picked up the loose ball.
After Zach Strittmatter hit two free throws for the Bulldogs with 17 seconds left, the Saints’ Charlie Fisher tried to tie the game with a long 3-pointer, but it was well short. Strittmatter then finished the game with a final free throw.
After a tight first quarter that saw 10 lead changes, the Saints gained control and led from midway through the second quarter up until Gardner’s key rebound basket.
“I thought defensively we got better in the second half,” Roberts said. “It was a situation where we had given up eight 3s in the first half, and if that had continued, it would have been a long night for us.”
St. Charles East banged down 10 3-pointers, and Batavia countered with 7, as Coffey hit 4 and Mike Rueffer added 3.
But Batavia (11-11, 6-4) doubled up the Saints on the boards, grabbing 28 rebounds behind Gardner’s game-high 10, to only 14 for the Saints.
“We know that rebounding is our Achilles heel, and it’s almost crazy that we have done as well as we have,” St. Charles East coach Brian Clodi said. “But our guys on the inside fought those kids all night and did an unbelievable job.”
Clodi was sure that the most important rebound of the night — Gardner’s over Stephens — was a foul.
“There is no doubt that I thought it was over-the-back,” Clodi said. “Kendall is 6-5 and he boxed him out, and Gardner is going to explode in there and he plays like that the entire game.
“That was definitely the change in the game, but at the end of the day, it didn’t win or lose the game,” Clodi said. “We had to make our layups down the stretch, and we missed the front end of a one-and-bonus.”
Clodi said four different defenders tried to slow Coffey down in the first half, to no avail, but he was pleased with the defensive effort on the Bulldog standout in the second half.
Coffey has turned in some of his best games against St. Charles East, and this one was no exception. He had 17 first-half points to help the Bulldogs match the Saints’ sizzling pace (12-of-23 from floor in first half).
“I thought our grit and determination tonight was really good,” Coffey said. “In the beginning of the year, we didn’t do that well when we fell behind by that much (36-26 late in first half), but tonight we were able to gut it out and finish the game.”
St. Charles East now finds itself a game behind front-runners Elgin (7-2) and St. Charles North (7-2), as the Saints go up against host Elgin tonight.