Batavia dominates Glenbard East
One play symbolized the Batavia mastery over Glenbard East on Saturday afternoon in Oswego.
Leading a two-on-one fast break in the opening quarter, Batavia junior Liza Fruendt displayed a flair for the dramatic in opening-round action of the six-day Oswego Girls Basketball Holiday Classic.
The point guard threw a behind-the-back bounce pass to Miranda Grizzafi for a simple deuce as the Bulldogs never trailed in administering a 58-28 victory over the Rams.
“My high school coach (at Plano, Scott Miller, currently the Rams’ boys coach) would have taken us out of the game for doing that,” Batavia coach Kevin Jensen said of the dazzling Fruendt pass. “You can tell (Fruendt) has a lot of basketball sense.”
The three-year starter scored the opening pair of buckets in the game and drained two-3-pointers during the Bulldogs’ 20-point second-quarter outburst that provided Batavia more points at halftime than the Rams could muster the entire game.
“It’s something Miranda and me have been practicing on all the time,” said Fruendt, who scored a game-high 15 points. “There was an angle to do (the pass).”
The other major development in the Bulldogs’ one-sided victory was the complementary play of twin posts Hannah Frazier and Erin Bayram.
Frazier, a 6-foot-2 freshman, and Bayram, a 6-1 junior, controlled the paint with a combined 19 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocks.
“I think the (two) big girls killed us,” Glenbard East coach Dan Finnie said.
“It’s really helping us to have two girls over six feet (tall),” Fruendt said. “People can’t match up with us. We can really do some damage (on the low block).”
As if Frazier, one of three Batavia players in double figures with 12 points, and Bayram were not enough to contend with, the Bulldogs’ perimeter game was equally frightful.
Freshman southpaw Bethany Orman was lethal with three 3-pointers off the Bulldogs’ bench to finish with 10 points.
“I like playing with these girls,” Orman said.
Offensively, it was a game-long struggle for the Rams (1-9) in effectively countering the Bulldogs’ alternating man and zone defenses.
Glenbard East, which did not reach double figures until Sammie Symonds’ 3-pointer with less than three minutes to play before the break, shot 11-for-52 (21 percent) for the game.
Batavia (7-3), meanwhile, showcased efficiency in all aspects, converting all but one of its 14 free-throw attempts.
“I thought we had some real nice possessions on both offense and defense,” Jensen said. “When we play fast (offensively) we’re at our best.”
Allison Hansen scored 7 points to lead Glenbard East; reserves Symonds and Tajanae Key added five apiece.