St. Charles North sweeps Batavia

Sydney Russell and Leah Horton delivered the key sequence, the twin backbreakers that enabled host St. Charles North to turn back Batavia for the second time this girls basketball season.

The two seniors, honored before the rescheduled Upstate Eight Conference River Division clash Monday night in St. Charles, had back-to-back 3-point plays with under three minutes to play in the third quarter.

Batavia, which had drawn within 3 points early in the quarter, never recovered from the North Stars' first double-digit lead of the game.

St. Charles North limited cold-shooting Batavia to 7 points over the final 14 minutes and 37 seconds of action to sweep the season series 50-37.

"We have been looking forward to this game since freshman year," said Horton, who scored a team-high 14 points to go along with 8 rebounds. "We decided during halftime the seniors in particular that this was going to be our last (regular-season) home game. Scoring makes points, but defense wins basketball games."

Batavia (7-16, 4-5) rallied from a 30-22 halftime deficit behind freshman guard Liza Fruendt in the third quarter.

The point guard drained consecutive 3-pointers, and Katie Baglieri later added a midrange jump shot to bring the Bulldogs to within 33-30 with 5:37 remaining in the third.

But the North Stars' defense became the defining as well as deciding factor in the contest.

Batavia would not score again until the final minute of the frame, and the squad suffered through a fourth-quarter shooting malaise in which the Bulldogs could only connect on 2-for-13 from the field.

For the night St. Charles North (13-12, 7-3) held Batavia to 30 percent shooting (16-for-53) from the floor.

"We just didn't shoot the ball well enough to get a win on the road," said Batavia coach Tim DeBruycker. "It felt like we were cold the whole night. We need to get more balanced scoring."

The North Stars were leading 35-30 when Horton and Russell keyed the 9-2 quarter-ending burst with back-to-back 3-point plays.

"It was just a wonderful night for (Horton)," said Russell, who had 11 points to augment a team-best 9 rebounds.

Russell lost Fruendt on consecutive Batavia possessions early in the third. Fruendt, who finished with a game-tying best of 14 points, was hounded by the North Stars' defensive adjustment afterwards.

"We left her open, and you can't do that because she is a very good outside shooter," said Russell. "We switched up our game plan and switched to man."

The fourth quarter became a final tribute to the North Stars' seniors.

With Batavia only able to score 5 points, North Stars coach Colleen Breenan was able to get significant minutes for Lauren Mahurin, Amanda Ciran, Taylor Russell, Tess Fischer, Kate Booe, Amy Swiderski and Natalie Capone.

Fischer scored 9 points for the North Stars; Erin Bayram and Katie Ryan had 8 and 7, respectively, for Batavia.