Bartlett downs Rockford Jefferson

Bartlett boys basketball coach Jim Wolfsmith wanted to see his players cut and share the ball better than they had during the 4-game losing streak they carried into Monday's game against Jefferson.

His Hawks apparently got the message.

Of Bartlett's 21 baskets in a 68-62 win over the J-Hawks in pool play at the Hinkle Holiday Classic at Jacobs, 16 were assisted.

Jefferson's active brand of man-to-man defense actually helped spark the Hawks' passing game, according to Bartlett's coach.

"We have a habit of playing at a very slow, pass-the-ball pace and Jefferson doesn't allow you to do that," Wolfsmith said. "Even in regular man they're up-tempo and that forced our guys to play at a faster pace, which we've been asking them to do. Because with what we do offensively it's hard to guard when we're running at pace. It's easy to guard when we're not."

Nobody shared the ball better than Bartlett point guard Tyer Pauletti. The 6-foot-1 senior finished with a career-high 10 assists.

"He's amazing," Bartlett guard shooting guard Ben Reyes said.

At one point during the third quarter, Pauletti assisted on 3 straight baskets by Robby Jimenez, who scored 10 points in the period and a team-best 17 overall.

Five straight Bartlett baskets in the period were assisted.

"I felt like our paint game was a lot more open," Pauletti said.

"We started to slip and curl a lot more. Once we got it inside that opened up driving lanes and kickouts and threes that we finally hit."

"They wanted to cut harder than we wanted to stop them," Jefferson coach Todd Brannan said. "I think that's what really hurt us."

Bartlett (5-4) sank five 3-pointers, three by Reyes, who scored 8 first-quarter points to stake the Hawks to a 20-17 lead through eight minutes.

Playing without second-leading scorer Quillin Dixon, who remains day to day with back soreness, according to Jefferson coach Todd Brannan, the J-Hawks managed only 7 second-quarter points against Bartlett's 2-3 zone.

In fact, the Hawks held Jefferson (8-4) to14-of-40 shooting through three quarters in taking a 45-39 lead.

The J-Hawks were able to sink 9 of 15 fourth-quarter shots, 5 by senior guard Kaveon Rogers, including three 3-pointers.

He finished with a game-high 19 points, but it wasn't enough to overcome Bartlett, which sank 13 of 15 fourth-quarter free throws and 21 of 27 from the line overall.

Reyes finished with 16 points for the Hawks, who conclude pool play against Johnsburg on Tuesday at 9 a.m.