Bartlett hangs tough down stretch to top St. Charles North
The young Bartlett girls basketball team took another step toward coming of age Saturday afternoon when the Hawks held on down the stretch and defeated St. Charles North 62-56 in an Upstate Eight Conference game played in Bartlett's frigid gym.
"We're learning to finish a little better," said Bartlett junior Jacki Gulczynski, who led the way for the Hawks again with 16 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocks. "We did better with our turnovers today; we had less than 20. Our passing was much better in the second half."
Neither team had more than a 5-point lead in a helter-skelter first quarter, which ended tied at 22. But then the Hawks (7-4, 3-1), who won for the third straight time and for the fifth time in their last 6 games, went on an 8-0 run to grab a 30-22 lead after a score in the lane from 5-foot-10 sophomore reserve Lisa Palmer, who had a strong game with 8 points and 7 rebounds.
"I was real happy with our bench play today," said Bartlett coach Denise Sarna. "Lisa Palmer came in and did a real nice job and gave us a spark."
The North Stars (5-3, 1-2) weren't about to go quietly though. Sparked by senior standout Kiley Hackbarth, who finished with a game-high 19 points, St. Charles North came back to make it a 30-27 game with 2 minutes left in the first half. From that point, the Hawks and Stars played nip-and-tuck with SCN forging a 34-34 tie with 33 seconds left in the second quarter on a 3-pointer from junior Sydney Russell (9 points, 3 assists).
After 3 ties and 3 leads changes, Bartlett finally moved ahead for good when Gulczynski hit a bucket with 4:45 left in the third quarter to make it 42-41. Sophomore Haley Videckis (10 points) and Palmer each scored as the Hawks grabbed a 46-41 advantage with 2:23 left in the third.
The lead would eventually balloon to 60-50 after 2 free throws by Gulczynski with 3:51 left in the game but then the Hawks went cold and St. Charles North went on a 6-0 spurt to make it interesting again at 60-56 after Jenna Bell (11 points, 3 steals) scored with 2:01 to go. But that would be the last points the North Stars would score as they went 0-for-5 in the final 2 minutes. Bartlett sealed the win with 2 free throws from junior Nicole Beck with 26 seconds left.
"The game would have gone differently if we had hit a couple of those shots," said North coach Colleen Brennan. "They're both good ballclubs and it was a good ballgame."
Bartlett owned the boards, outrebounding the North Stars 43-30. The Hawks also shot well, hitting 26 of 55, while SCN was 21 of 60, including just 9 of 32 in the second half.
"That's about blocking out," Brennan said. "But there were times we blocked out really well. (Bartlett) really crashes the boards.
"But we've made a lot of progress and we'll make more."
Junior Christina Carlson added 12 points for Bartlett and sophomore Kristin Conniff had 9 points, 5 steals, 4 assists and a block coming off the bench.
"We had good balance today," Sarna said. "We've got a lot of players who can come in and contribute and that helps us keep our legs fresh at the end. We don't play until next Saturday now (at West Chicago) so we have a full week of practice and we need that."