Bartlett scores 51 in second half to dump South Elgin
There was a girls basketball game at South Elgin Saturday afternoon, but one could be excused for mistaking it as a track meet.
Bartlett junior standout Jacki Gulczynski struck for a career-high 31 points and the Hawks came back from a 3-point deficit at halftime with a 51-point second half outburst to down the host Storm 87-64 in the regular season finale for both teams.
Bartlett (18-9, 8-2) won for the ninth time in its last 10 games and secured sole possession of second place in the Upstate Eight Conference with the victory.
"We run and we like a fast-paced game," said Bartlett coach Denise Sarna, whose team opens Class 4A regional play against Lake Park at Glenbard East on Tuesday.
"We can keep the pace up pretty good and when we face a team like South Elgin we hope we can keep it going longer than they can."
The Hawks did that on Saturday. Bartlett jumped out to a 10-0 lead but South Elgin (10-16, 2-8) roared back and behind 20 first-half points from sophomore Becca Smith, the Storm grabbed a 39-36 halftime lead.
"We went into halftime and talked about defense," said Gulczynski. "We gave up 39 points, so defense is what coach was stressing. In the second half we got the stops we needed and our offense came off our defense."
Down 48-47 after a basket by South Elgin's Deandra Anderson with 4:46 left in the third quarter, Bartlett turned up the intensity on both ends of the floor and ended up ruining the Storm's Senior Day by turning the game into a rout.
Gulczynski, who was 11 of 13 shooting in the game, hit a short jumper, Haley Videckis (15 points) hit a 3-pointer and a 2-pointer 24 seconds apart and Gulczynski scored again and suddenly Bartlett had a 56-48 lead with 3:33 left in the third. South Elgin never got closer than 4 the rest of the way and trailed by as many as 25 late in the game. Bartlett, which shot a blistering 56 percent (32 of 57) for the game, outscored the Storm 22-8 in the fourth quarter.
More importantly, Bartlett limited Smith to just 8 points in the second half and only 9 shots after she had 20 points and 17 shots in the first half. South Elgin as a team put up 71 shots in the game but made only 26.
"We picked up our ball defense with Becca and tried to limit her touches in the second half," Sarna said. "Katie Gutzwiller came in and did a good job of denying (Smith) the ball."
The Hawks were without injured starting guard Nicole Beck and injured junior forward Christina Carlson, both of whom Sarna said she hopes are back next week.
"Kids that had to step up and play roles today did a good job," Sarna said.
That would include sophomore Kristin Conniff, who scored 15 points and hit 7 of 9 from the free-throw line. Sophomore point guard Janessa Baker scored 7 points and had 4 assists.
The Hawks also outrebounded South Elgin 41-33. Gulczynski had 10 boards and Conniff and Lisa Palmer (7 points) 7 each.
Senior Alyssa Krause had 11 points for the Storm and Anderson added 10.
"We spotted them the 10-0 lead and I was thinking, OK it's Senior Night," said South Elgin coach Tim Prendergast, whose team faces Batavia Monday night in the St. Charles North regional. "Then it turned into a track meet, which I think we're pretty good at, but they were faster than us in the second half.
"We had a hard time containing Jacki in the second half. She catapulted them and we couldn't match her. I've seen her three years now and she gets better every year. They denied Becca the ball and their defense stepped up."