Marshall edges Batavia; Warren girls cruise

Batavia scrapped and battled for 27 minutes to finally get back on even terms with Marshall on Saturday night.

And it took a little more than a minute for the Commandos to regain command in the finale of he 11th annual Meijer High School Hoops Showdown at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates.

The quick 6-point burst gave Marshall the breathing room it needed to hold off Batavia 56-55 in a meeting of state-ranked boys basketball teams.

"We knew we could play with them," said junior David Bryant, who scored 8 points and hit a 3-pointer to get Batavia within 53-51 with 48 seconds left. "We knew it would be different from conference (Western Sun) and I thought we started a little slow the first couple minutes.

"But once we got used to their quickness and adjusted to the floor I thought we did a good job."

Quick was the operative word as Marshall (15-3), ranked third in Class 3A by the Associated Press, never trailed Batavia (15-3), ranked seventh in 4A.

And it was evident after Northwestern-bound senior Nick Fruendt (16 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocked shots) drew Batavia even at 44-44 on a 3-point play off a miss with 4:59 left.

Fifty seconds later, Marshall junior Darius Smith (18 points on 7-for-13 shooting) scored inside. Another hanging drive on the right side by Smith and a tip-in by Davaris Davis finished the 6-0 run for a 50-44 lead with 3:03 to play.

"Quick, everything they do is quick," Batavia coach Jim Roberts said of Marshall's decisive run.

"Quick feet, quick hands," said Fruendt, who fouled out with 1:12 to play. "They've got some hops."

-- Marty Maciaszek

Girls

Warren 60, Fenwick 46: The nearly unblemished record, the 6-foot-5 girl, the other Division I post, the coach who just joined the 200-win club.

Apparently, they're not enough to sell some people on Warren's girls basketball team.

"Everybody was saying we were going to lose all three games this weekend -- even people in our school," senior guard Shana Shepherd said. "We knew we were a good team and we just wanted to prove it."

The Blue Devils are proving it all right.

They made it two impressive wins in less than 24 hours Saturday, knocking off defending Class AA state champ Fenwick 60-46 as part of the Meijer Hoops Showdown at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates.

Warren (21-1) wraps up its busy weekend today, when it plays undefeated Parkland Academy from Miramar, Fla., at 11:45 a.m. at Whitney Young High School in Chicago as part of the MLK Dream Classic.

"Going into this weekend, they were excited," coach John Stanczykiewicz, who recorded his 200th career win Friday against Kokomo (Ind.) in the McDonald's Shootout, said of his players. "They wanted to look good. They wanted to make a statement that Warren is for real."

Not that she had to prove it to anyone, but Sarah Boothe showed again that she's for real. The 6-5 Stanford recruit had 25 points and 10 rebounds against Fenwick (20-5), which was coming off a 105-64 loss to South Bend (Ind.) power Washington in the McDonald's Shootout on Friday.

Boothe had 27 points and 14 boards in the Blue Devils' 51-49 win over Kokomo.

"I knew this was going to be a big weekend," Boothe said. "I knew I was going to have to really step up my game on the offensive and defensive ends, and just help my team. My teammates are doing a great job."

Lory Shaw, who recently committed to Wisconsin-Green Bay, added 12 points for Warren. Shepherd scored all 10 of her points, including two 3-pointers, in the first half in helping the Blue Devils build a 36-32 lead.

"This was amazing," Shepherd said of playing at the Sears Centre. "Everyone was a little nervous at the beginning, but as soon as we got going we just got into it because the atmosphere was so awesome."