Girls basketball: Batavia defense stifles York in regional championship game
Batavia coach Kevin Jensen knew the key to taking down York in the Class 3A Geneva regional final would start and end with defense.
Only allowing 8 points in a half showed how much his team took that sentiment to heart.
Using a combination of a suffocating defense and a big night from behind the arc, the Bulldogs pulled away for a 50-32 victory over the Dukes for their fourth straight regional championship.
“A win like this is because of all the work that this team has put in from months ago,” Jensen said. “They’ve done a lot of work to get into a position to play well in a game like this. It helped that we knocked down a couple 3s early and took care of the ball, but we do what we do because of how well they defend.
“It’s taken a lot of time to get this program to where we are today. And it’s fun to see it come together the way it has.”
Batavia will take on No. 6 Wheaton North in a sectional semifinal at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Bulldogs defeated the Falcons — who beat No. 3 St. Charles North 52-45 in their regional final — in both their DuKane Conference games 53-39 and 48-24.
Batavia (23-9) set the tone early on both offense and defense. After allowing 8 points in the first quarter, the Bulldogs used stifling pressure to force the Dukes to go 0 of 8 from the field and go scoreless in the second quarter to help the Bulldogs take a 24-8 lead into halftime.
“We knew that we had to stop their players in order to win,” senior Julia Arulandu said. “Our whole defensive strategy was to be in those gaps to not let them into the paint and shoot the ball. That was just awesome defense, and that was our whole goal.”
And while their defense was keeping the Dukes off the scoreboard, the offense couldn’t stop putting points on the board, especially from behind the 3-point line. The Bulldogs finished the game shooting 55% from beyond the arc, with seniors Kaidyn King and Natalie Warner each sinking four 3-pointers on the night.
“Honestly, it was just confidence,” King said. “We came in really hype during our warmups, we were screaming for each other. And the more we give each other confidence, the more it’s easier to just confidently step up and shoot, and they just went in for us.”
A lot of those open looks came from drives in the paint from senior Hallie Crane, who had 8 assists on the night, with most of them being to either a wide-open King or Warner in the corner.
“I knew that as soon as I passed it and they shot that it was going in,” said Crane, who also had 11 points. “I really liked being able to feed off their energy and being able to find the open player and just look for them and them always being there.”
It was that consistent ball movement from Batavia that caused York (14-17) to struggle defensively, especially when it came to guarding the 3-pointer. And while York coach Brandon Collings knew running a zone defense would come with letting up some 3-pointers, he didn’t expect the Bulldogs to be taking as much of an advantage off it as they did.
“If they got that open look, they buried it,” Collings said. “And for us to have a chance to win this, we needed them to not shoot the way that they did.”
After being held scoreless in the second quarter, the Dukes did manage to get the offense going a bit in the second half, with senior Anna Filosa leading the way.
“We don’t have a starting lineup that can score in bunches and all shoot 3s, so our defense has led to our offense the entire season,” Collings said. “Where we’ve struggled has been where we offensively haven’t been able to finish. But either way, I’m proud of our girls. They kept battling and played hard. It just wasn’t our night.”