30-0 run spurs Bartlett past S. Elgin
The Bartlett girls basketball team has dropped several twenty-something to nothing runs on teams this season.
But Tuesday night’s explosion was something no one could have expected.
Trailing a jacked-up South Elgin team 19-17 with 6:22 to play in the second quarter, the top-ranked Hawks went on an inexplicable 30-0 run and cruised to an 80-54 Upstate Eight Valley win in a playoff atmosphere at Bartlett’s Pink Night for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund, a game witnessed by close to 1,000 fans.
“We’ve been waiting to get back into that rhythm,” said Bartlett coach Denise Sarna. “Tonight, with a great crowd and a playoff atmosphere, the girls caught the excitement.”
And to South Elgin coach Tim Prendergast, his team was too excited. The Storm (14-9, 3-7) jumped out to a 13-4 lead as sophomore Savanah Uveges scored 6 early points, but an 8-0 run by Bartlett — with scoring leader Haley Videckis on the bench with two fouls — got the Hawks (24-1, 9-1) back into the game. The Storm led 17-15 after one quarter and the teams traded baskets to open the second before Bartlett went on its 30-0 barrage, which started with a Videckis basket with 6:15 to go in the half and didn’t end until South Elgin’s Lania Robinson made 2 free throws with 5:58 left in the third quarter.
“The problem with Bartlett is our girls get too up for Bartlett,” said Prendergast. “The adrenaline just sucks the air out of us. We had no legs in the second quarter and I wasn’t going to blow four time outs. We don’t normally give up transition baskets like we did tonight.”
Things were going well for the Storm when Videckis went to the bench just 2:23 into the game with her second foul. South Elgin turned a 6-4 lead into 13-4 and the Hawks were 1-for-8 on their own court with 4:38 left in the quarter. But Lisa Palmer and Kristin Conniff made free throws that brough it to a 13-7 game and Videckis re-entered with 2:45 to go, promptly hitting a 3-pointer 40 seconds later.
“With the game of basketball, you just have to flow with it,” said Videckis, the Indiana recruit who finished with a game-high 23 points as well as 4 rebounds, putting her at 1,205 career points. “You’re not always going to get the calls you want. It’s what you make if it when you have the ball.”
Videckis made plenty of it, scoring 11 of her 17 first-half points in the second quarter as Bartlett opened up a 40-19 lead at halftime. The Hawks then scored the first 7 points of the second half, ending any South Elgin comeback hopes.
“We started running the floor with intensity,” Videckis said. “We really shared the ball. I’m so proud of my teammates for that.”
The Hawks played some defense, too. After South Elgin hit 8 of 16 shots in the first quarter, Bartlett’s swarming defense contributed to the Storm making just 12 of 41 the rest of the way. Meanwhile Bartlett, which was 4 of 18 in the first quarter, finished the game 28-for-63 and had a huge 49-27 rebounding advantage.
“We didn’t defend as well as we can in the first quarter,” Sarna said. “We were too hyped. We settled down and got the defensive pressure going.”
Senior Kristin Conniff had her usual steady scoring game with 17 points and also crashed the boards for 9 rebounds while adding 7 assists, 6 steals and 2 blocks. Lisa Palmer added 11 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals and Ashley Johnson had 10 points for Bartlett.
The Hawks held South Elgin senior Becca Smith, the Loyola signee who leads the area in scoring, to just 7 points in the first three quarters. Smith ended up scoring 17. Uveges had 10 for the Storm, Kennede Miller added 9 and Robinson 8.
“We stopped rebounding and we stopped getting back on defense,” said Prendergast. “You do that against a team like Bartlett and it’s game over.”
And it was.