Bartlett wears down Lakes

Jim Wolfsmith has a new look and essentially a new Bartlett boys basketball team after coaching the Hawks within a win of a berth downstate last year.

What hasn't changed is Bartlett's effectiveness on the court.

Despite Wolfsmith grabbing his hair several times and perhaps wanting to pull out what's left of it during Monday night's season opener against Lakes in Mundelein's annual Thanksgiving tournament, Bartlett slowly pulled away to win 69-50.

“The kids know I'm a perfectionist and I expect more,” said Wolfsmith, who wasn't happy with the way the Hawks ran sets or how they shot free throws (9 of 22). “I thought our defense was not bad, but it wasn't great.”

Hawks junior sharpshooter Matt Chaltin led all scorers with 21 points, hitting 8 of 14 shots, including five 3-pointers. Junior Ryan Roszkowiak added 16 points coming off the bench, and sophomore point guard Lance Whitaker had 15 for Bartlett, which led the entire way.

Whitaker and Femi Oyewole (5 points, 11 rebounds) started last winter during Bartlett's postseason run, which ended with a supersectional loss to Waukegan.

Sophomore Direll Clark had 12 points, 8 rebounds and 3 steals for Lakes, which played without four key players. Sophomore Jake Kohler came off the bench to score 11 points and hit a trio of 3s for the Eagles, who were playing their first game under head coach Chris Snyder.

Lakes was missing Donte Arnold, Justin Schneider, Nathan McMahon and Nick Hibbing. Arnold, a returning starting guard, and the 6-foot-8 Schneider were both sick. The 6-4 Hibbing has to sit out the Eagles' first two games due to an athletic code violation, and Lakes learned last week that the 6-4 McMahon will be sidelined 4-6 weeks with a meniscus tear.

“The guys that played stepped up,” Snyder said. “I thought (Bartlett) was a good test for us. We know what we need to work on. The key is that (the players) didn't quit.”

About a month ago, Wolfsmith finally quit growing his hair. He had 12 inches of it cut off.

He and his daughter started growing out their hair a couple of years ago as part of a Locks of Love endeavor, after a friend of the daughter was diagnosed with cancer. Locks of Love uses real hair to make wigs for cancer patients.

“It was a neat experience,” Wolfsmith said.

Bartlett experienced a good start against Lakes, as Whitaker sank a layup in transition and Chaltin sank a 3 to put the Hawks up 5-0. Tanner Blain's 3-pointer got Lakes within 6-5, but Chaltin answered with another 3 of his own.

Wolfsmith used his entire 14-player roster in the first half, as Bartlett built a 29-17 lead.

“We ran the floor really well, offensively and defensively,” said Roszkowiak, who scored 14 points in the second half.

Lakes got within 35-29 midway through the third on back-to-back 3s by Kohler. But Bartlett responded with three straight baskets and closed the quarter with a 14-7 run to lead 49-36.

Chaltin and Roszkowiak both knocked down 3-pointers during the spurt.

“If we need a shot knocked down, he's our go-to guy,” Roszkowiak said.

“Great shooters. Athletic,” Snyder said of Bartlett. “That point guard (Whitaker) is a good player. You can tell they've been there before. When we made that little run in the third quarter, they put some other guys in there and they capitalized on some mistakes that we made and widened the gap. Like I told the guys, when you're constantly playing catch-up, it wears you out.”

Oyewole put an exclamation mark on the win with a running, two-handed dunk midway through the fourth.

“Very nice,” Roszkowiak said. “That got us pumped.”