Batavia stays hot, tops Naperville Central
With seven wins in eight tries to start the season, Batavia’s girls basketball team is primed for one of the best seasons in the program’s history.
Coach Kevin Jensen is looking to see just how good this group can be. They certainly will find out quickly, and they got off to a good start Saturday in Oswego’s Hoops for the Troops Tournament.
With Liza Fruendt and Bethany Orman putting up big numbers from the backcourt and Hannah Frazier having her way inside, Batavia used a 26-4 run in the first half to break away from Naperville Central. Shannon Ryan’s sizzling shooting — she drained 8 3s and scored a career-high 30 points — kept Naperville Central somewhat close but wasn’t nearly enough in Batavia’s 64-56 victory.
“I think it will be a good test for our team because we’ve been playing well lately,” Frazier said of not just this tournament but a grueling upcoming schedule.
Batavia (8-1) continues the Oswego tournament Monday against Proviso East before facing defending Class 4A state champion Marian Catholic on Wednesday. Neuqua Valley is among the teams on the other half of the draw.
After that, it’s off to the Montini Christmas tournament against many of the state’s best. In January comes Batavia’s first appearance at the McDonald’s Shootout at Willowbrook.
There’s some land mines to deal with in the near future — and that’s just the way the team wants it.
“It’s awesome,” Orman said. “It’s going to be fun to play and see how it turns out against all these teams.”
Naperville Central (2-7) came out firing Saturday, especially Ryan. After Lisa Tassi opened the Redhawks’ scoring with 2 free throws, Ryan drained three 3-pointers to put Naperville Central ahead 11-5.
Ryan hit a fourth 3 later in the first quarter, but her four baskets were the only ones for her team. Orman canned consecutive 3s of her own to give Batavia the lead for good at 13-12. It also kick-started the 26-4 run that left Batavia ahead 22-15 after one quarter and 37-18 midway through the second.
Ryan had 17 points by halftime, yet Batavia still led 40-27.
“She hit her shots real well tonight,” Jensen said of the Redhawks’ 5-8 guard. “She has a nice flow to her shot. She was very impressive. We knew they were going to have to rely on 3s.”
That the Redhawks did, going 7 of 16 on 3s in the first half but just 1 of 12 on its 2-point attempts. Naperville Central finished the game with 12 3-point baskets and just 5 2-point buckets.
“We don’t have 6-foot-2, 6-1,” Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum said. “That’s the way we’ve got to play.”
Frazier took advantage inside, sinking 7 of 10 shots from the field to finish with 18 points and 5 rebounds.
“I had a lot of confidence going in,” Frazier said. “Liza had some great looks, Shea (Bayram) had some good passes. We’ve been working on the high low in practice and that helped.”
Naperville Central outscored Batavia 29-24 in the second half yet never cut further into the lead than the 8-point final margin. Ryan capped her career game with three more 3s in the fourth quarter.
“She did that and the first 12 minutes we gave her the toughest defensive assignment we’ve had in probably 10 years,” Nussbaum said of trying to guard the Missouri State-bound Fruendt, who the veteran coach compared to former Bartlett and Notre Dame star Lindsey Schrader.
“I’m pleased with the way we played. I wish we would have won, but we played pretty well. This is so much better than any of our DVC games including the one we won. This is the best we’ve played all year.”
Emily Kraft added 14 points and a game-high 9 rebounds for the Redhawks who were coming off a surprise loss to Glenbard East.
“This is the kind of effort we need to have all the time,” Nussbaum said. “If you saw us Thursday night you would be like, what performance enhancing drugs did they take the last 48 hours?”
Fruendt led Batavia with 20 points, 6 steals and 7 rebounds. She has scored at least 20 points in 8 of Batavia’s 9 games.
Orman added 14 points and 7 rebounds.
“I’m unbelievably happy with (how we played),” Jensen said. “The next two nights are going to be tough. It’s going to be a bear to get out of here with a winning or .500 record.”