Inside strength lifts Glenbard N.
Monday night's game between Batavia and Glenbard North came down to who could dominate inside.
The two teams met in the opening round of the West Aurora regional, and for most of the first quarter the Bulldogs muscled their opponents and did whatever they wanted in the paint.
"That's been a strength for us down the stretch," Batavia coach Jim Roberts said.
On balance, though, it turned out to be a strength of Glenbard North's which won 65-56. The No. 18 seed Panthers face No. 2 Downers Grove South today.
Led by Elliott Vaughn (14 points, 12 rebounds), Batavia got off to an 11-6 lead, scoring all but 1 of its points from inside the lane.
"(Elliot) is a poster child for hard work," Roberts said.
The Panthers were relegated to shooting from outside, and thanks to 3-pointers from Josh Fleming, Sean Fogarty, and Andrew Bergmann, they managed to trim Batavia's lead to 16-15 after one quarter.
But as though a switch had been flipped, the Panthers turned up the intensity, and began denying Batavia anything underneath. That led to an 18-9 quarter for Glenbard North, and a 33-25 lead at the break.
"Batavia is a very strong, very physical team, and we just had to come out with more energy and more physicality," Glenbard North coach Joe Larson said. "Our aggressiveness showed up."
Batavia needed to regroup, and reverse the trend or risk getting blown out. The Bulldogs elevated their play on the defensive side, and the result was a strong, physical performance by both teams in the third quarter.
"There was a lot of effort on the floor in that quarter," Larson said.
Trailing 42-35 with eight minutes left in their season, the Bulldogs took the floor to start the fourth with a clear sense of urgency. But by then Fleming (22 points) had taken over the boards at both ends, and before Batavia could put another point on the board they were down 46-35.
"They have really good big men, and to win this game we had to protect the middle," Fleming said.
When Fleming wasn't scoring underneath, Anthony Keener was getting it done from outside, scoring 8 of his 12 points in the fourth quarter.
"We didn't want to go out losing our first game, and everyone kicked up their intensity level tonight," Anthony Keener said.
But the Bulldogs were not finished yet. Zach Strittmatter converted a 3-point play, to pull Batavia back into it and give them a spark. With 4:30 left in the game, Vaughn made a strong move to the hoop and scored, cutting the gap to 5.
Glenbard North (11-15) responded by scoring 9 of the next 11, and when Fleming turned a slam dunk into a 3-point play, he gave the Panthers a 59-48 lead, and took away whatever hope of a comeback Batavia (13-13) had left.
Jesse Coffey returned from missing two games last week out sick and scored 11 points for Batavia in his final game before playing at Taylor University in Indiana next year.