Batavia reverses course against West Chicago
It's been nearly six weeks since Batavia found itself in a 17-4 hole in their first boys basketball matchup with West Chicago. On that night the Bulldogs fought back but ultimately took their first loss of the season 58-56.
Friday night the two teams met up again in Upstate Eight River Division action, and, once again, Batavia fell behind early. This time the Bulldogs stopped the Wildcats before it got out of hand, defeating West Chicago 59-47.
The host Wildcats got off to a great start, staking themselves an 8-0 lead when Peter Dolan scored on a three-point play with 5:05 remaining in the first. However, that's where Batavia made its stand.
"Early on, we got looks, and I'm not gonna tell Canaan Coffey to not take an open 3-pointer," Batavia coach Jim Nazos said of his team's slow start. "We were getting looks and we weren't turning it over.
"So it wasn't like they were off and running on us. We just had trouble putting it in the basket."
Batavia's offense finally began to kick it into gear when Coffey connected on his first 3-pointer with 4:30 to play in the first to cut the lead to end the run. By the end of the quarter, the Bulldogs had whittled the lead down to 2, and then they really ratcheted up the intensity in the second quarter.
Batavia (10-8, 3-5) controlled the boards and stopped West Chicago point guard Tai Bibbs' dribble penetration, holding the Wildcats to a single field goal while taking a 26-14 lead to the locker room.
"He's very quick and he turns the corner on a lot of people, and I thought (Tyler Lovestrand) did a great job containing him," Nazos said.
In the third quarter the Wildcats got a pair of 3-pointers from Alex Mitchell to cut the lead to 9. They continued to grind on Batavia, eventually narrowing the lead to 1 on another layup from Dolan with two minutes to play in the third. That was as close as it would get.
"We didn't do a good job with situational basketball tonight," West Chicago coach Bill Recchia said. "We had opportunities to get to the free-throw line and we didn't do it."
In the fourth quarter Batavia opened the lead to 16 with timely shooting before hanging on for the 12-point victory.
Lovestrand and Coffey led Batavia with 13 and 12 points, respectively, while Dolan and Bibbs led West Chicago (5-9, 3-4) with 11 and 10.