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Bench sparks Batavia past WW South

Sure it's only one win, but you can understand why a Batavia team coming off an 8-17 season felt so good after beating Wheaton Warrenville South 68-59 Monday night in the first game of their 39th annual Ken Peddy Classic.

"Coming out with a win is always good," said Batavia junior John Fitch, a big part of a terrific effort by the Bulldog bench. "We didn't experience that last year and it kind of led to not-so-good things. I think winning this first game is going to build our momentum and we're going to have a great season."

Batavia's bench was a key part of the story. Bulldogs coach Jim Nazos subbed five midway through the first quarter - Fitch, Kamontez Thomas, Carter Eberhardt, Brett Bowman and Ed Golden.

They provided the Batavia (1-0) with a spark all night. Fitch led the group with 7 points and 5 rebounds. Thomas also scored 7 points to go with steady ballhandling. Golden added 6 points, Eberhardt 4 and Bowman a bucket as Batavia's bench outscored WW South's 26-4.

"We're a very deep team," Nazos said. "I have complete confidence in those guys going in there and doing things. At different points of the game different guys gave us a burst. I thought it was a complete team win."

Batavia senior Chasen Peez led both teams with 22 points. Canaan Coffey added 13 points and 4 steals while Jacob Roberts scored 7 including a clutch 3-pointer with 55 seconds left.

That 3 came with Batavia clinging to a 63-59 lead after the Tigers had whittled a 16-point deficit to 4.

"He worked his tail off, he deserved to hit that shot but we also have to coach up because there's a possibility of that missing and them going down and cutting it (the lead)," Nazos said. "It was karma he hit it even though it's probably something we didn't want to take."

After a back-and-forth first half with 14 ties or lead changes in front of lively and loud student sections for both teams, Batavia led 34-29 on Coffey's baseline jumper in the closing seconds.

The Bulldogs built their biggest lead 55-39 on Bowman's basket. Josh Ruggles (19 points), Eric Rasch (14 points) and Joe Metzger (13 points) led the Tigers' late 20-8 surge that wasn't quite enough.

"We have some kids who haven't played a lot of varsity minutes and we looked like that sometimes," WW South coach Mike Healy said. "Our guys played really hard. We just turned it over into layups. We couldn't defend our turnovers and we got beat on the offensive glass a little bit."

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