Streamwood beats Batavia for 20th win
The big question coming into Friday night’s Upstate Eight clash in Batavia concerned Streamwood’s ability to bounce back from a tough loss to Geneva the night before.
The Sabres (20-5, 11-2) quickly answered that question by taking an early lead and never letting up, as they dominated what turned out to be a physical, up-tempo game, and beat the Bulldogs 64-47.
“We knew we had to be aggressive tonight, and not let Batavia get comfortable, that was the key,” Streamwood coach George Rosner said. “Batavia played very well, but we kept the pressure on them.”
It was Streamwood’s 20th win of the season, the first time the program has reached that mark since 1987-88.
“This was a goal for the girls, and it’s a great achievement for them,” Rosner said.
At the outset, the game was a battle between two seniors, Batavia’s Katie Baglieri and Streamwood’s Emma Schmidt. Baglieri hit a 3-pointer to give the Bulldogs the early lead. But Schmidt matched her shot for shot, and when the Streamwood forward hit a three of her own it gave the Sabres a 7-5 lead, and they would never trail again.
“We definitely knew that we needed to come out fired up and really take it to them,” Schmidt said.
As good as Baglieri was on offense, Batavia coach Tim DeBruycker was just as focused on her defensive assignment, which he considered a key to game.
“Katie Baglieri was phenomenal all night long with her defense on (Jessica) Cerda,” DeBruycker said. “She was in a no-help, man-to-man defense, and I told her I wanted her to shut Cerda down because she hurt us the last time we played them, and that’s what Katie did.”
While Cerda was held in check, other Streamwood players stepped into the spotlight on offense. Just as Schmidt had dominated the opening quarter, the next eight minutes belonged to junior guard Amanda Patterson, who scored 8 points in the second quarter and led the Sabres to a 34-25 lead at the break. “Amanda is a quality point guard,” Rosner said. “She’s a defensive specialist who has really come into her own this year as a scorer.”
But Patterson’s biggest moment came with just over 3 minutes left in the third quarter. After the Bulldogs had cut the lead to 7, and had the ball with a chance to make that margin even slimmer, Patterson executed a perfect takeaway at midcourt, and in a flash converted it into a breakaway basket.
“She had her back turned to me and I saw the ball,” Patterson said. “I wasn’t sure the ball would come loose or not, but it was worth a try.”
Batavia (8-18, 5-6) never got that close again. But they didn’t go away, either. Aided by Katie Ryan’s strong presence underneath, and solid defense from the players along the perimeter, the Bulldogs were able to challenge Streamwood in the half-court.
“Katie is extremely athletic and she has no fear going after the basketball,” DeBruycker said.
Ryan finished the game with 11 points and 14 rebounds, but she had a counterpart in Streamwood’s Michele Tomczak, who scored 14 points to go with 9 rebounds and 3 blocks.
As has been the case too many times this season, what finally did the Bulldogs in were turnovers, many of which led to easy baskets for the quick and aggressive Sabres. “You can’t give up that many possessions, especially when the other team scores 64 points,” DeBruycker said.