Injury bug bites Batavia again

After a first half of the season that included losing starting center Erin Bayram to a knee injury, the Batavia girls basketball team deserves some better luck in 2012.

Instead, it took all of a few minutes into the first quarter at Oswego East for more bad luck to hit.

Leading scorer Liza Fruendt, like Bayram a sophomore starter, left with a finger injury midway through the first quarter. Her parents took her to the doctor for a clearer diagnosis and found out the finger is dislocated but there is no ligament damage.

Batavia battled from behind most of the night without Fruendt in a 50-44 loss, the Bulldogs' first game in 17 days.

Batavia coach Kevin Jensen said he was proud of the way his team played even more short-handed than they have been.

"It kind of shortened our rotation a little, made a few girls play a little more minutes than they normally do but quite frankly I was pleased with how everybody played," Jensen said.

"It's tough but it's part of competing. You are taking a risk with competing. Such is life. You have to keep on moving forward. It's an opportunity for our other teammates to step up and fill a role. Maybe Liza will be back before we know it."

One such teammate who stepped up Tuesday was Sami Villarreal who came off the bench for a team-high 12 points. She drained a 3-pointer with 1:29 left in the game that brought Batavia within 42-38 before the Wolves (10-5) made 8 of 10 free throws to hold off the Bulldogs (7-8).

"We were really aggressive in this game and working together," said Villarreal, who knows all about bad luck after a knee injury sidelined her nearly all of her sophomore season. "We went in the locker room (at halftime) and we were like let's win this for Liza because she got hurt. We were trying to play together as a team and try to do well without her and I think we did pretty good."

Oswego East led Batavia 9-7 after a seesaw first quarter with 6 ties or lead changes.

Batavia only caught up once after that at 22-22 early in the third quarter on a basket from Katie Ryan. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, Ryan went to the bench moments later with her fourth foul.

By the time Ryan returned in the fourth quarter a 2-point deficit had grown to 9 points. Ryan fouled out with 3:18 remaining with 11 points, 10 rebounds and 2 assists.

"Katie, it just hurt getting her in foul trouble," Jensen said. "It just takes you out of the flow of things. She had a couple silly fouls. The hustle fouls we don't care about but you get a couple silly fouls and now you foul out."

Oswego East forced 23 turnovers and held Batavia to 14-of-51 shooting. The Bulldogs stayed as close as they did by outrebounding the Wolves by 9, a team effort that in addition to Ryan included Miranda Grizaffi (7 points, 8 rebounds), Tamar Norville (7 rebounds), Villarreal (6 rebounds) and Kaytlin St. Clair (6 rebounds).

"The girls played their hearts out," Jensen said. "I never feel that good about losing a game but I don't have a lot of things to complain about as far as how hard we played. I felt like we were a couple shots away from being right there."

The Bulldogs suffered another injury later in the game when backup post Paige Zochert tweaked an ankle she had rolled in practice.

LeRoyia Campbell and Aysia Bugg led the Wolves with 13 and 12 points, respectively.

"Long shots, long rebounds, they got some second-chance points but we also got a lot of offensive rebounds and putbacks," Wolves coach Abe Carretto said. "They were looking for their shots, so we were able to pressure their guards."

After that long break, Batavia quickly gets back into action again Wednesday night against No. 5 Geneva.

"It was weird all of a sudden we have a game now after we have had all these practices," Villarreal said. "We worked hard in practice to come back strong."

St. Charles East events: The St. Charles East girls basketball team has several special events coming up.

Jan. 6 will be teacher appreciation night. The players will present a staff member and highlight the positive impact made on their lives.

Jan. 13 will be support our troops night. The team is teaming up with the Batavia girls team and the St. Charles East bands to collect and ship supplies overseas to the military.

Last year, the Saints shipped over 15 cases of goods to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fans can check stcharleshoops.com for the list of provisions and then donate their supplies at the game. The Saints also welcome donations for shipping costs.

Senior night is scheduled for Jan. 21, and breast cancer awareness night is Jan. 27 with girls from both St. Charles high schools wearing pink as part of their uniforms to promote the fight against breast cancer.

On Jan. 28 the St. Charles East Special Olympics squad will scrimmage at halftime. For more information on all these events visit stcharleshoops.com.