Batavia pulls away from Elgin

Not even Desmond Douglas' career night could derail the Batavia express.

Canaan Coffey drained six of the Bulldogs' 15 3-pointers Friday night in Batavia, and post Chasen Peez dominated the interior in every facet after the intermission.

Elgin opened the second half with Lavion Baldwin cutting the Maroons' deficit to single digits.

But the Bulldogs would allow only the last of Douglas' field goals on back-to-back possessions before steamrolling Elgin with the last 16 points of the third quarter.

The Batavia starters' services were not needed in the fourth quarter of the Bulldogs' 85-47 Upstate Eight River boys basketball victory.

Douglas, who had five 3-point possessions in the opening half, scored 22 of his career-high 28 points before the intermission.

Coffey missed the first shot of the game, but the junior guard then hit four consecutive jumpers from beyond the arc.

Peez also converted his two 3-pointers, and Coffey added his lone conventional field goal in transition as Batavia - which hit 8 straight shots one point in the opening quarter - ended with a 28-17 lead.

"I think we owe much (our first-quarter output) to Canaan's 3-point shooting," Peez said. "He shot the (heck) out of the ball."

Elgin (2-7, 1-4) would have been complete misery had it not been for Douglas' superlative play in the first half.

The junior guard scored 9 straight team points in less than a minute with a circus-shot 3-point play and consecutive 3-pointers.

"We just want to go out there and compete every night," Douglas said. "Some people don't think we can compete against the better (River) teams. We want to prove them wrong."

Peez, who augmented the team-high 20 points Coffey authored, beat the second-quarter buzzer to give Batavia (6-4, 3-2) a 43-33 lead at halftime.

But the Bulldogs closed out the third quarter by scoring 2 more points in succession than Elgin could muster for the entire second half.

"I think we got punched in the first three minutes of the third quarter," Peez said. "We played (our style) of ball again after that."

The Batavia bench outscored its counterparts 32-4.

John Fitch scored 14 points in limited minutes as a reserve forward for Batavia.

Brett Bowman and Michael Fee had the last of the Bulldogs' 15 field goals from beyond the arc.

The Maroons, conversely, went ice cold in the second half.

Baldwin was also in double digits for Elgin with 14 points.

But an Elgin player other than Douglas or Baldwin did not score from the field until Dijawon Bonds' 3-pointer as time expired.

"(Batavia) just did a lot better job in the second half," Douglas said. "It became a struggle (to score)."

"We were playing hard in the first half (defensively), but I thought we got caught out of position a lot," Batavia coach Jim Nazos said. "I thought we were much more disciplined defensively in the second half. We had to mind (Douglas) with one guy and spy him with a couple of others."