St. Charles East strikes fast against Batavia
St. Charles East did a bit of a 180 Friday night on that old saying about only needing to watch the final two minutes of an NBA game.
For the high-flying Saints, it was the first two minutes that was all you needed to see to know it was going to be their night - again - in what became an 81-72 victory over Batavia on the third annual Hoops for Hope night in St. Charles.
St. Charles East (17-2, 9-1 in the Upstate Eight Conference River Division) blitzed Batavia (13-11, 3-7) with a 10-0 flurry to start the game, forcing Bulldogs coach Jim Nazos into a timeout with just 1:59 off the clock.
"We talked about coming with a lot of energy," Saints coach Patrick Woods said. "Batavia plays hard, they battle. Offensively we executed some really good reads and I thought it was a great high school game."
It took just 14 seconds for Mick Vzryal to open the scoring by swishing a 3-pointer on a feed from Cole Gentry. Next it was Gentry's turn, picking the Bulldogs' pocket and going in for a layup.
Gentry found Jack Bronec for a 7-0 lead, then the senior point guard drained the first of his three 3-pointers to make it 10-0.
"I don't know how we're going to beat a great team if we're going to chase 10 in a blink," Nazos said. "Something we have to work on. Can't happen."
Of course if you only watched the first two minutes of the Saints you would miss a lot of fun basketball.
Like Bronec, the Saints' 6-foot-8 center, continuing his strong play with 14 points. That included a jam on a cut to the basket, some hard-fought second-chance putbacks and a soft touch on a baseline jumper.
"Jack played a great game tonight," Woods said. "We need him to play like that."
Or Vzryal and his all-around game with 15 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. Evan DiLeonardi drew a start and chased around Canaan Coffey defensively while chipping in 7 points including a pair of high degree of difficulty reverse layups.
And Gentry was in the center of it all, leading the Saints with 20 points, 9 assists and 3 steals on a night he had more on his mind than basketball.
Every Batavia and St. Charles East player on the varsity, sophomore and freshman teams listed a loved one in the program who they were playing in memory of or in honor of.
For Gentry, it was his Aunt Candy High.
"We knew today was bigger than us," Gentry said. "It's a big motivator for us. Sometimes when you are out there and you are not playing well you feel sorry for yourself but then you realize people go through a lot more than struggling in a basketball game. You have to put it all in perspective. I feel like we played for the people we represented in the program."
St. Charles East finished the night shooting 64.8 percent from the field (35 of 54). Batavia did a pretty good job keeping up, hitting 56.8 percent itself (25 of 44) and also 16 of 21 at the free-throw line led by Coffey's 9 of 9, but the Bulldogs couldn't dig out of the early 10-0 hole.
They got as close as 24-19 when Jacob Roberts (9 points) ended the first quarter with a 3-pointer and Coffey made two free throws to begin the second.
Gentry followed with a steal and assisted Jeremy Champine for a fastbreak layup to start a 9-0 run that quickly pushed the lead back to 33-19.
Batavia pulled within 43-35 early in the third quarter led by Chasen Peez, who scored 15 of his game-high 21 points in the second half. The Saints again had the answer with six different players scoring over the final five minutes of the third quarter to take a 58-44 lead to the fourth.
"They were successful getting one or two guys out of the game, they did a great job on Jake Asquini tonight, but we had 'Vyz' step up, Jack played great and Cole played well," Woods said. "I wouldn't want to guard us, let's put it that way."
The Saints took their biggest lead at 73-53 on James McQuillan's layup, and they were up 77-57 with three minutes left when Woods pulled his starters.
Batavia sliced into the Saints' lead with 15 points in the final three minutes, 10 by Kamontez Thomas who finished with 15.
Both teams return to action Saturday. Batavia hosts West Aurora at Night of Hoops while St. Charles East plays Naperville North at 2 p.m. at Geneva.
"They have a lot of weapons," Nazos said of the Saints. "You are forced to guard five guys. We know they can hit shots and Gentry can get to the rim but we have to make sure we clean up everything else that we can control. They capitalized on anything you mess up on and that's what makes them really good."