Undefeated Bartlett keeps rolling along

The No. 1 Bartlett girls basketball team still has its perfect season intact.

The Hawks (21-0, 7-0) defeated Upstate Eight Valley rival Metea Valley 65-53 Friday night at Metea Valley. The Hawks never trailed in the game, and were only without the lead in the early stages of the first quarter with the game tied at 2.

Hawks head coach Denise Sarna knows that anyone who faces her Bartlett team will step up their game, and despite being down by as many as 20 points, the Mustangs (8-10, 3-5) did just that in their third game of the season against the Hawks.

After the Hawks took an 18-point lead into the locker room at halftime, the Mustangs went on a 7-0 run late in the third quarter to cut their deficit to 10 with the help of back-to-back field goals by junior post Lori Obendorf.

“They made a good run there,” said Sarna, whose team won its 25th straight conference game. “We addressed it. We talked about our rebounding, (Metea Valley) really crashed the boards hard. I thought we cleaned that up a little bit and got our composure back, we stopped it and made a couple of baskets.”

Metea Valley still kept fighting in the fourth quarter, going on a 9-2 run to get within 9 but Hawks senior guard Janessa Baker and senior Kristin Conniff would each find the basket and extend Bartlett’s lead to 13.

The Hawks outscored the Mustangs 25-12 in the first quarter, and Metea Valley head coach Kris Kalivas knew that the first half performance was one of the keys to the loss.

“In the first half, we came out and turned the ball over right away,” said Kalivas. “We didn’t box out very well in the first half either, so we gave (Bartlett) second and third opportunities, and they’re too good for us to allow them to have those.”

Senior Haley Videckis was held to just 1 point in the first quarter, but still led the Hawks with 18 points. Conniff followed with 17 for Bartlett, and senior guard Katie Gutzwiller put up 12. For the Mustangs, Obendorf had a team-high 17 points, while senior post Amira Turner notched 10.

“(Metea Valley) played heavy defense on Haley in the beginning,” said Sarna. “But the thing that we like about our team is that we have other players who can step up.”