Batavia wins consolation title at Montini

As much basketball as every area team has been playing the past couple weeks, nobody compares to the Batavia girls.

If playing the likes of Marian at the Oswego Tournament wasn't enough, Batavia followed that by again joining the Montini Christmas Classic.

All those games against top competition are paying off. Batavia's defense keeps improving, capped Tuesday by holding Bolingbrook to 36 points on 14-of-56 shooting (25 percent) in the consolation championship game.

That effort, along with a game-closing 18-6 run, was the story in Batavia's 48-36 victory.

"Our strong suit is definitely defense," Batavia point guard Bethany Orman said. "That's what we practice a lot and we keep getting better at it."

Tuesday's win gave Batavia (9-9) a 3-1 record at the Montini tourney, matching its wins in the tournament the past two years combined.

"I don't care what side it is on, 3-1 in this tournament is big for us," Batavia coach Kevin Jensen said. "I can't ask for anymore. We played unbelievable 'D.' No offense to any of our girls but athletically we had no business running with them. This was a big, big deal for us."

Bolingbrook (3-6) scored the opening basket for its only lead of the game. Batavia led 22-16 at halftime paced by Hannah Frazier's 12 points.

Bolingbrook tied the game at 30 late in the third quarter. Batavia regained the lead on an out-of-bounds play underneath with Orman assisting Frazier who scored while being fouled for a three-point play.

Ahead 35-32 early in the fourth, Jessica Koch hit back-to-back 3s and Madeline Slater nailed a pullup jumper that pushed the lead to 43-32 with six minutes left. Bolingbrook never got closer than 9 points.

Koch hit three 3-pointers and scored 9 points.

"Coach puts me in there to make them," Koch said. "I just have to keep working hard. It was a good win for us. We improved every single game and we're just going to go up from here."

Playing with Emily Lasse sidelined by an ankle injury and Stephanie Rodriguez and Morgan Erickson out of town, Batavia had several players step up. Katie Weber joined the starting lineup while Shea Bayram scored 6 points, Slater 5 and Jessie Costello 3.

Orman didn't score in the game but handled constant full-court pressure flawlessly.

"Considering all the pressure they put on her and the fact we put a lot of pressure on her because right now she's kind of it as the ballhandler, I don't think she ever looked rattled," Jensen said. "If she scores 10 and can't handle it (Bolingbrook's press) it is not as big as what she did today."

"It's good to play against that because we are going to play better and better teams," Orman said. "It helps me to get better. It was a fun game to play in."

Frazier capped the first half of her huge junior season with 23 more points and 5 blocked shots. She scored in a variety of ways Tuesday.

"I thought she looked like a Big Ten player today," Jensen said. "She took the ball to the hole a couple times, she hit a jumper, she kept that girl (6-foot-3 Paige Bryant) sealed who is long and athletic. The best part was that she might not have done two years ago is when she got her shot blocked, she came back and scored the next bucket. That was huge for us because they were on the verge of breaking into the lead more."

What all of the Batavia players did was play tremendous team defense. Bolingbrook sored just 6 points in the first quarter and 6 points in the fourth.

For the 16 quarters in the tournament Batavia held its opponents to single-digit scoring in nine of them and allowed an average of under 38 points per game.

"It's a very good confidence-booster," Orman said. "I think now it's just going to go up from here. We know we can hang with good teams if we just work our butt off."