Elk Grove silences Batavia
With Batavia putting its 13-13 record up against Elk Grove and its 13-13 record Tuesday night at the Class 4A Geneva regional semifinals, perhaps it was an omen luck was not going to be on the shooters’ side.
No. 7 seed Elk Grove didn’t exactly burn the nets hitting 13 of its 41 shots (31.7 percent) from the field, but that was nothing compared to No. 10 Batavia’s offensive struggles in the Grenadiers’ 39-28 victory.
After hitting just 9 of 37 through three quarters, Batavia missed its first 10 attempts in the fourth quarter.
That killed any chance of a comeback. Within striking distance at 30-25 through three quarters, Batavia managed just 3 points in the fourth and finished off a 10 of 52 (19 percent) shooting night from the field.
“A lot of our games are these grind-it-out kind of games so we are used to playing these kind of games,” Elk Grove coach Ryan Kirkorsky said. “I think our kids defensively executed our game plan and did the things we asked them to do.”
Elk Grove never trailed. Melissa Soloria buried a 3 on Elk Grove’s first possession and Liza Fruendt answered with a runner for Batavia but there weren’t many other occasions the teams traded baskets.
“Our whole entire game plan was pressure defense,” Elk Grove junior forward Diamond Boyd said. “Kelly Naughton did a great job on Liza. Everyone did their job. We followed our game plan to a T.”
Leading 12-8 after one quarter, Elk Grove extended to 19-10 in the second before Kaytlin St. Clair single-handedly kept Batavia in the game. She started with a jumper, followed with a 3 and added a finger-roll layup to score all 7 of Batavia’s second-quarter points and keep her team within 21-15 at halftime.
“She had a nice burst for us, gave us a nice lift,” Batavia coach Kevin Jensen said. “She stayed aggressive the whole time.”
Batavia nearly caught Elk Grove in the third quarter, pulling within 27-25 on Fruendt’s 3 and a Katie Ryan free throw.
Batavia had three free throws from Ryan and Fruendt that could have given it the lead. But as the night went the Bulldogs missed all three — they were 5 for 11 at the line — and Naughton’s 3 gave Elk Grove a 5-point lead going to the fourth.
Solorio, Boyd and Amber Lindfors all scored in the fourth quarter as Elk Grove built its lead to 38-25 while Batavia kept missing until Fruendt made the team’s only fourth-quarter basket on a 3-point play with 1:14 remaining — ending a stretch of 9 minutes, 52 seconds without a point.
“You play the exact same game and you knock three more shots down and everything feels different,” Jensen said. “I thought for the most part we had some nice looks. Even when we had a dish and got a short shot things were rimming out.”
Boyd led Elk Grove with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Solorio and Naughton both scored 9 while Fruendt’s 10 points topped Batavia.
Elk Grove advances to the regional championship game at 7:30 p.m. Thursday against No. 2 seed Geneva (22-5). It’s the first time the teams have played since the 2009 sectional semifinals when Elk Grove nearly upset the then-undefeated Vikings — a Geneva team that eventually reached the state tournament for the only time in school history.
“They are the fastest team we have seen,” Kirkorsky said. “We’ll bring some boys in practice tomorrow and try to get ready for that speed. We have to get our kids to relax and have fun with it. Geneva is going to go on runs. Mentally we have to deal with their pressure.”
The loss ended Jensen’s first year with Batavia, a season that saw the team win 5 more games than 2010-11. The Bulldogs will graduate seniors St. Clair, Heather Anderson and Tamar Norville but bring back a lot of key players including the all-conference selection Fruendt who scored 20 or more points 7 times.
“We took a step forward in my eyes from where we were last year,” Jensen said.