Bartlett tops Wheaton North, will play for regional title

After much deliberation, Bartlett girls basketball coach Dave Mello decided to employ the team's diamond-and-one press Wednesday night.

It worked like a gem.

Forcing 10 first-quarter turnovers, the fourth-seeded Hawks (21-7) jumped out to a 15-4 lead and never looked back during their 53-40 victory over 13th-seeded Wheaton North (12-16) in the Class 4A regional semifinals in Bartlett.

Bartlett, which extended its winning streak to 12, will take on fifth seed Wheaton Warrenville South Friday at 7 p.m. in the regional title game. WWS beat St. Charles East 59-42 in Wednesday's second semifinal.

"We just call it the diamond," said Mello. "When we started out the year, it was pretty much 32 minutes of that. As more and more film was out on us, we felt like we were giving out as much as we were getting so we got away from it.

"I was going back and forth on it all day today," added the Hawks' first-year varsity coach. "I went up to Brad (assistant coach Hunt) and said, 'let's start out with that and see what we can do.' It was effective early."

Senior guards Kaitlin Brohan and Nicole Gerdevich were the primary pests behind the press, combining for 9 of the Hawks' 10 first-half steals.

Bartlett went on a 9-0 run during a 39-second stretch in the first quarter.

"Kaitlin has a great sense for the game," said Mello. "For the season, I bet she's close to 4 ½-5 steals per game on average."

Brohan, who scored a game-high 20 points with 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals, tallied 11 of her points in the opening half as the Hawks built a 28-16 lead.

"I think we picked up the intensity a lot on defense," said Brohan. "We did what we needed to do."

Wheaton North staged a rally, trimming the deficit to 4 at 30-26 following a layup by Bella Mullaney (12 points, 9 rebounds) with 3:41 left in the third quarter.

However, the Hawks answered by scoring the final 6 points of the period to extend their lead to 38-27.

"Our coaches told us there would be ups and downs in the game," said Brohan. "We pulled through strong."

Kayla Hare and Shelley Lyjak added 8 points apiece for the Hawks.

Hannah Swider led the Falcons with 14 points.

"We knew they were going to come out in the press," said Falcons coach David Eaton. "It's almost like a mind game - you know you're going to make mistakes but you have to keep coming after them. I thought we did a great job of that.

"Our four seniors were tremendous leaders on and off the court. They're just a great group."