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Bartlett cruises past Glenbard East again

One of the challenges the coaches of good teams face is what to work on and where to improve when you're blowing other teams out.

It's rather like trying to find the flaws in a diamond: when you look at it with an untrained eye, it's gleaming and brilliant. But look beneath the surface and you see the imperfections in the color, cut, or clarity.

There's little question that Bartlett is a diamond, and not in the rough. The No. 3 seeded Hawks showed that again Wednesday evening when they dismantled Glenbard East 58-21 in their IHSA Class 4A regional semifinal in Bartlett.

It was Bartlett's second dismantling of the Rams in the last six days, coming in the wake of their 55-25 rout last Friday in Lombard.

The win was Bartlett's ninth straight and 13th in their last 14 outings and improves their record to 27-4. They advance to play Wheaton North Friday evening in Bartlett for the regional championship.

Freshman guard Mackenzie Hare scored 13 of her game-high 20 points in the first quarter on a trio of 3-pointers (she had five for the game) to lead the host Hawks.

Her sophomore backcourt-mate Lexie Sinclair had 12 and Savannah Standefer, Teagan Noesen and Justina Hernandez added 6 apiece.

The Hawks' weaknesses are few and far between, but coach Brad Hunt's discerning eye spied a couple of them amid the carnage.

"We missed a lot of layups tonight - fastbreak layups, contested layups, stuff around the basket, and we missed a lot of free throws," Hunt said. "They're good players and they're better than that. And we missed a lot of free throws - we only made 5 of 13. That's not good if we want to be a championship team. We have to work on those two things.

"But overall I was very happy. In the first half we pressed like crazy and the energy by all the girls was just amazing, and that energy really set the tone. The fast breaks and the transition allowed us to get some easy buckets."

Glenbard East, which managed just four points in each of the game's first three quarters, wrapped their season at 7-23. Eight different Rams scored, led by sophomore captain Emily Ryan with 5 and junior center Hannah Simek, who made four fourth-quarter free throws.

"This was our third time seeing Bartlett," said Rams coach Nicole Miller. "They have a really fast style of play and jumped out ahead early. I think we had 15 turnovers in the first half, so they had a lot of extra possessions and they're a very good, fast-breaking team. We tried to put it together but it was just difficult to find any flow against them."

Bartlett defeated Wheaton North in overtime earlier this season at the Falcons' Christmas tournament. If the Hawks can do it again Friday they will advance to next week's Class 4A Batavia sectional.

"Wheaton North is an up-and-down the court kind of team and they like to press and trap and get after you for 84 feet," said Hunt about his crew's next opponent. "We're definitely looking forward to playing them on Friday. We're going to be there and we're going to be ready."

Gleaming and brilliant, no doubt.

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