Third quarter dooms Batavia

It's not like a "We're No. 2" chant broke out Tuesday night at Batavia, but the Streamwood girls basketball team still was quite proud of what they accomplished.

With a 51-44 victory highlighted by a near perfect 23-8 third quarter the Sabres (11-12, 7-4) reached their goal of taking second in the Upstate Eight Conference River Division behind Geneva.

"That was our goal once we didn't think we could get first with Geneva," Sabres coach George Rosner said. "They are good players and they are working hard. There's talent. I'm very proud of them."

Two of those talented players are sophomore Hannah McGlone and junior Jessica Cerda who combined for 40 of Streamwood's 51 points. They helped cover for a short bench with just eight players; four-year starter Amanda Patterson is one of the injuries Streamwood has had to overcome.

It's the second straight season the Sabres have finished second behind Geneva.

"We really wanted it two years in a row," McGlone said. "We wanted to prove Streamwood is here to stay."

Streamwood also defeated Batavia 58-50 last week, a game the Sabres had to come from behind.

The only lead Batavia (12-11, 5-5) held Tuesday was 2-0 on Katie Ryan's third-chance basket. Ryan kept going early, scoring 7 of Batavia's 9 first-quarter points, but McGlone's bucket to end the quarter put the Sabres up 11-9.

"She (Ryan) did give me trouble in the beginning but we figured out if we move the ball fast we could get the open cut," McGlone said. "That helped us a lot. And our rebounding helped a lot because we were able to run a lot."

Behind Ryan's 12 first-half points Batavia stayed within 21-18 at halftime before Streamwood dominated the next eight minutes on both ends.

A runner by Liza Fruendt was all Batavia could muster against 18 Streamwood points to open the quarter. McGlone started the 18-2 run with a three-point play and ended it with a putback basket to build a 39-20 lead.

"We had a great third quarter," Rosner said. "We were clicking offensively and defensively."

While Streamwood hit 9 of 15 shots in the third quarter Batavia went just 4 of 14 including three airballs on wide-open jumpers.

"Did we miss some shots because we weren't ready, did we go flat because we missed some shots?" Batavia coach Kevin Jensen said. "For whatever reason we couldn't pick our energy up. We had an OK first half. In the third quarter it kind of snowballed."

McGlone's basket to open the fourth quarter gave Streamwood its biggest lead at 46-26. Batavia got itself back in the game keyed by 3-pointers from Miranda Grizaffi and Michaela Strehlau.

The second of those got Batavia within 48-42. McGlone's steal and basket helped slow Batavia's comeback, and trailing 50-44 with three minutes to go Batavia had five possessions to close the gap further but failed to convert.

"We let them come back, we made some mistakes," Rosner said. "But when it was crunchtime we had some good stops."

Ryan led Batavia with 16 points and 8 rebounds. No other player had more than 6 points.

"We put ourselves in a position we couldn't make a mistake (in the fourth quarter)," Jensen said. "We needed to make every shot because of the hole we dug ourselves and we couldn't quite do that."

Holly Foret scored 8 points, Cerda had 17 points and 8 rebounds but the star for Streamwood was McGlone with 22 points, 15 rebounds and 3 steals.

"Hannah for a sophomore there is nobody like her," Rosner said. "She is outstanding. She is tough to stop, handles the ball. She does a lot."