Girls basketball: Crane’s big third quarter helps Batavia hand St. Charles North first loss
Batavia needed some sort of pick-me-up in the second half Monday.
After entering halftime only down by one against St. Charles North, the Bulldogs were looking for a way to push the pace and get them on top in a big way.
So when they marched back onto the court, it was obvious who was answering that call for the Bulldogs — senior Hallie Crane.
“I just got locked in and said ‘OK, we need to start pushing the ball and get going,’ ” Crane said. “And I think that just fueled me.”
Crane ended up scoring 11 of her team-high 19 points in the third quarter and also added 11 rebounds to help the Bulldogs to a 47-36 victory over the North Stars.
“She’s just a warrior out there, and it’s hard to take her off the floor,” Batavia coach Kevin Jensen said. “Last year she slowly turned into our second-best player, and she’s kind of taken over and proved that this year is her time to shine, and she’s making all the right plays out there.”
Batavia (7-2, 3-0 DuKane Conference) finished the third quarter outscoring North 16-6. A majority of those points came from a 14-1 run it went on in the first 4:36 of the quarter before a timeout on the floor.
“We just felt like we were really prepared for this game,” Jensen said. “We’re prepared in who we play. We play a tough schedule every year no matter who’s on the team, and it helps our girls in the long run, and their confidence continues to grow every day.”
While Crane established her play in the paint, it allowed for the Bulldogs to get more open shots from behind the arc, which they took full advantage of. Senior Natalie Warner had two 3-pointers in her 10-point outing, while senior Julia Arulandu had nine points, all coming from 3-point shots.
“It felt really good to have them be able to score, and that always brings the team up,” Crane said. “I think we were a little disoriented at the beginning, but when we push together, we can be a really good team. And we always have each other’s back and I think that’s going to be very important for a team like us.”
St. Charles North (11-1, 2-1) pushed the pace of the game throughout the first half and entered halftime with a 20-19 lead. And while St. Charles North coach Michael Tomczak liked how the team performed in the first half, as well as the fourth quarter, it was just the third quarter that led to their first loss of the season.
“Batavia plays really hard and are super physical, and that’s something that we’ve struggled playing against this season,” Tomczak said. “But we need to face more of it in order to get better.”
The North Stars had their best production coming off the bench. Sophomore Bronwyn How finished with a team-high 14 points to go with five rebounds and four blocks, while junior Brianna Buono added 10 points.
“I’ve been maintaining most of this year that we have seven starters, but we can only start five,” Tomczak said. “When Brianna came in, I didn’t think the moment was too big for her and she was engaged in the game immediately, and the same thing happened with Bronwyn.
“But there were some players that the game seemed too loud and aggressive for them at times. And this needs to make them better, because we need all hands on deck.”