Videckis, Bartlett hold off South Elgin
One thing the Bartlett girls basketball team knows going into every game is this: The Hawks are going to get every opponent's best shot.
And while the Hawks may have been ripe for an upset in South Elgin's gym Thursday night, senior standout Haley Videckis saw to it that wasn't going to happen.
Videckis exploded in the second half, finishing with a career-high 30 points, as No. 1 Bartlett remained undefeated with a 66-57 Upstate Eight Valley win, the Hawks' 23rd straight UEC victory.
“I was really fired up (in the second half),” said Videckis, the Indiana signee who scored 18 second-half points. “We decided to go back to the original game plan in the second half and we took advantage of our height.”
It's not that the Hawks (12-0, 4-0) changed anything they normally do in the first half. But they struggled to get a flow going and led just 29-27 at the break after being down by as many as 5, 25-20, late in the second quarter. A 9-2 spurt keyed by 2 buckets off the bench from senior Ashley Johnson helped Bartlett avoid being behind at halftime.
“We had a game plan but we didn't quite execute it in the first half. I was worried about this game — on the road and coming off a big win,” said Bartlett coach Denise Sarna, whose team downed No. 2 Waubonsie Valley Tuesday night. “It was not a good start for us. South Elgin came out ready to play and they played hard in the first half.”
With Bartlett senior starters Kristin Conniff and Lisa Palmer both in foul trouble, Storm coach Tim Prendergast ended up lamenting his team's inability to take a bigger lead in the second quarter.
“We did well defensively in the first half but I thought we gave up a little offensively,” said Prendergast, whose team is now off until Dec. 27 when it starts play in the Oswego East tournament.
“I thought we played well enough to be up 10-12 points at halftime. You gotta press on the accelerator when you play these guys.”
Bartlett had its foot to the floor in the third quarter. Videckis scored the Hawks' first 8 points of the quarter herself, with her fourth basket of the period sparking an 8-0 Bartlett run that gave the Hawks a 43-30 lead with 3:17 left in the third.
“Haley just figured ‘I'm going to be aggressive and take care of things,' ” Sarna said. “When she gets hot she can really put points on the board.”
Bartlett led 55-39 after three quarters and extended the lead to 20 midway through the fourth quarter before South Elgin (8-4, 2-3) closed the game on a 16-5 run, becoming the first team to come within 10 points of the Hawks this season.
“Their third-quarter push was the difference,” said Prendergast. “They were quick on transition and they attacked the glass better. They took us out of our rhythm.”
The Hawks also turned up the defense on South Elgin senior scoring star Becca Smith in the second half, limiting her to 6 points on 3 of 13 shooting in the final 16 minutes. Smith finished the game with 16 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals.
“We didn't do a good job on our traps in the first half and our defense always starts our offense,” said Videckis, who added 10 rebounds and now has 969 career points. “We had to cut off the pass to (Smith) and we did better in the second half.”
Conniff added 15 points for the Hawks and Johnson, quickly emerging as one of the top sixth men in the area, had 11. Bartlett hit on 26 of 54 shots and outrebounded South Elgin 34-32.
“South Elgin's a good team and we need to play in games like this to see how we respond,” said Sarna. “Today I though we responded well. We're going to take everybody's best shot and South Elgin gave us theirs.”
Sophomore Savanah Uveges led the Storm with 19 points and 4 steals.
“The kids played hard,” Prendergast said. “Bartlett is incredibly talented and very confident in what they do and they have great leadership out there. (Videckis) is a great player and I have a lot of respect for her. She gets better every year.
“But I like our team. We're young and we'll be all right. I feel like we can play with (Bartlett) and beat them.”