West Aurora pulls away from Batavia
The finale of Saturday’s 19th annual Night of Hoops at Batavia featured two renowned area basketball coaches — West Aurora’s Gordie Kerkman and Batavia’s Jim Roberts.
Together, they’ve combined for 29 regional and 12 sectional championships during their 60-plus years of coaching. They entered the game with 1,179 career victories (Kerkman-727; Roberts-452).
Two of the more memorable games in the neighborhood series included Batavia’s 62-48 upset of second-ranked West Aurora in the 1991 sectional championship, and the Blackhawks’ 63-57 win over Batavia in the 2006 sectional finale at East Aurora.
This time around, the stakes weren’t quite as high but the outcome was still in doubt down the stretch. West Aurora (18-3) pulled away late for a 53-44 victory over the host Bulldogs (4-16).
Senior Juwan Starks, who paced the Blackhawks with 11 points and 8 rebounds, hit a clutch 3-pointer from the top of the key with 5 seconds left in the third quarter to extend West Aurora’s lead to 35-31.
Junior center Joshua McAuley (8 points, 14 rebounds, 3 blocked shots) then scored the first 4 points of the fourth quarter to make it 39-31, and the Blackhawks connected on 14-of-19 free throws over the last 6 minutes to finally put the game away.
Kerkman, who earned his 728th career win, was less than thrilled with his team’s performance.
“I thought our intensity level was very poor in the first half, and I thought we got outplayed for two or three quarters,” said Kerkman. “Finally somewhere in the middle of the fourth quarter they started to pick it up a little bit.”
While West Aurora won its sixth straight game, Batavia suffered its 11th consecutive defeat.
Kerkman had warned his team against being complacent prior to the game.
“I told the kids to forget about that 10-game losing streak — they’re going to come to play because they always do, especially at the Night of Hoops,” Kerkman said of the Bulldogs.
Did his team listen to its wise coach?
“I don’t think they did,” said Kerkman.
Junior Chandler Thomas agreed with his coach’s assessment.
“I think we took them very lightly,” said Thomas. “We thought that it might be easier than what it was. We needed to come out and play harder every play, and we just didn’t do that.”
Despite giving up 5 inches and at least 50 pounds to Batavia senior Cole Gardner (12 rebounds), Thomas held his own and actually outscored the Bulldogs’ big man, 10-9.
“I don’t focus my role on getting points,” said Thomas. “The best thing I can do is rebound and play defense, but I’ll take it any day.”
Micah Coffey led Batavia with 15 points, all coming from beyond the 3-point arc, while Luke Horton added 10 points and 8 rebounds.
Together, they helped rally the Bulldogs in the third quarter, as Coffey’s 3-pointer and Horton’s driving layup cut the Blackhawks’ lead to 32-31.
“This was Micah’s best shooting night but I thought we moved the ball better as well,” said Roberts, whose team was without injured Zach Strittmatter (ankle), Tucker Knox (ankle), and Mike Rueffer. “I thought we played off each other pretty well tonight.
“Like I told our kids, I was very proud of their effort but what stood out to me was that we battled. There were very few possessions where we didn’t make them work. But we don’t want to get caught up in moral victories. I just want us to work to get better.”
In earlier Night of Hoops action, Benet Academy defeated Wheaton North 39-35, and Peoria Central edged St. Joseph 68-65.