St. Charles E. shoots by Batavia
St. Charles East scored a season-high 68 points Thursday night in its win at Batavia, putting five players in double figures in an impressive offensive show.
And the Saints say there is even more firepower to come.
First-year coach Patrick Woods said he’d like to see his team play at an 80-point pace, which they almost would have been in the 68-58 win if not for a 9-point third quarter.
“Eighty points a game is definitely possible but we have to put together full games and right now we are at about 24 minutes,” said senior Johnny Hondlik, who led the Saints with 16 points.
“Once we get that put together I think we’ll see 80 points. When we have everybody hitting 3s you can’t really stop us. We have so many shooters on and off the bench.”
Hondlik drained 2 of the Saints’ 8 treys against Batavia (1-5, 0-2), who again played short-handed without Cole Gardner and Zach Strittmatter.
St. Charles East (4-2, 2-0), which won its third straight, came out firing against Batavia’s zone. Charlie Fisher drained the first 3 just 16 seconds into the game, and Dom Urso followed with another.
That was the first of Urso’s three 3s. St. Charles East made four in the first quarter to take a 21-13 lead.
Batavia stayed close early with red-hot shooting. The Bulldogs sank 10 of their first 15 shots from the field to pull even at 23-23 on Jake Pollack’s basket midway through the second quarter.
St. Charles surged ahead 38-27 at halftime with a 15-4 run to end the half. Urso capped the quarter with a 3-pointer with 4.4 seconds left.
Batavia scored the first 8 points of the third quarter to get right back in the game. Micah Coffey started the comeback with a jumper and a 3, and a stickback bucket from Luke Horton tied the game at 44.
Coffey’s free throw gave Batavia its first lead of the game, 45-44. The teams were tied at 47 heading to the fourth quarter as Batavia hit 17 of 34 shots through three quarters before finally cooling off a little at 4 of 12 in the fourth.
“I was disappointed in our defensive effort but part of that is Batavia is tough, physical, strong, and we’re on the road at their place,” Woods said.
Hondlik’s one-handed putback basket opened the scoring in the fourth quarter and put the Saints ahead to stay. St. Charles East widened its lead thanks in large part to reserve Michael Woods, who drove for one basket and then twice penetrated and found Hondlik for lay-ins as the Saints went up 58-49.
Horton drained a 3 to bring the Bulldogs within 60-54, but Dom Adduci — who hit 8 of his 9 free throws — stretched the Saints lead at the line.
“I thought the fourth quarter we maintained our composure,” coach Woods said. “It was a great way to finish off a game.”
Purdue recruit Kendall Stephens was sick Wednesday and missed school and came off the bench. He entered with 4:38 left in the first quarter and scored 13 points to join Hondlik, Adduci (14), Urso (11) and Fisher (10) in double figures.
“People think St. Charles East is Kendall Stephens and he’s a great player but it’s nice to see four or five other guys scoring because if they want to key on him we’ve got other guys,” Woods said. “That’s what’s going to make us good down the road.”
Batavia also got balanced scoring. Pollack led with 16 points while Horton and Coffey both added 11 while combining for 14 rebounds.
Bulldogs coach Jim Roberts liked a lot of what he saw as his team continues to play without their top returning players.
“They are getting after it,” Roberts said. “Just have to lengthen those periods of time.
“You cannot relax. You work so hard to get back, but that’s no time to relax, that’s time to keep pushing and pushing and pushing.”
The Saints return home Saturday against Geneva for an early season meeting between conference unbeatens. Woods said he’s looking forward to playing Batavia later this year at full strength.
“Obviously Gardner is a force inside but their other guys did a great job too,” Woods said. “I would rather him be in there because you want to play someone at full strength and I hate to have kids hurt. I’m sure next time they will be ready for us at our place.”
Ÿ Before the game Batavia honored its fan of the year, Helen Owens, a Batavia graduate who has been watching Bulldogs basketball for over 50 years.