Batavia gets past Streamwood

It sure looked like it was going to be an easy night for the Batavia boys basketball team the way things started out on Thursday at Streamwood. However, it turned into a long struggle, but in the end the Bulldogs were able to pull out a hard-fought 49-45 win in Upstate Eight River Division action.

Batavia (13-11, 4-4) opened the game with a 16-1 run, but wound up needing a couple clutch baskets from Colin Cheaney down the stretch to hold on for the win. Cheaney finished with a game-high 19 points.

The Sabres were within 45-43 with 2:02 left in the game when Cheaney scored on a layup off a back door cut to the basket on a pass from Devion Davis to extend the lead to 47-43. The two had hooked up on the same play moments earlier.

"That's a special play that we work on quite a bit," Cheaney said. "They are a very aggressive team on defense and that's a play where you can take advantage of that. We did a good job of staying composed when things got tight."

Eric Peterson hit a pair of free throws in the final minute for the Bulldogs to help seal the win. The Sabres had three chances to tie in the waning moments, but missed on three 3-point attempts.

"I thought we did a lot of good things in the final 3 minutes," Batavia coach Jim Nazos said. "We rebounded. We forced them to take some tough shots. And we took the ball to the rim. Those were some big baskets Colin made. He is always a steady influence on our team and makes big plays in close games when we need it."

Cheaney and Jayden Johnson each had a couple baskets in the opening 16-1 run. Batavia still led 31-20 at halftime before Streamwood mounted a comeback.

The Sabres (6-19, 0-10) went on a 15-3 run later in the third quarter to pull to within 37-35. Brendon Marton and Keenon Cole each had 5 points during the surge.

"Streamwood kept playing hard," Nazos said. "And we kind of got tight. We weren't running the offense very fluid and started second guessing our shots and passes."

Streamwood stayed right on the Bulldogs' heels right to the end. Malcolm Davis-Wilder pulled the Sabres back to within 45-43 on a 3-pointer with 2;31 to play. However, the Sabres just couldn't the basket they needed to pull even or take the lead.

"We had some matchup problems on the floor at the start of the game," Streamwood coach Paul Kowalyszyn said. "That put us in a hole. Once we got those sorted out we were much better off. We were able to feed off the pressure in the backcourt. But that's a lot to come back from and in the end the little things like not finishing around the basket a few times caught up with us."

Marton had 12 points to lead the Sabres in scoring. Cole had 10.