Bartlett cruises past South Elgin
The Bartlett boys basketball team already wears green, but the Hawks got greener Tuesday by tapping into a renewable energy source.
Bartlett harnessed the crackling energy of a large, boisterous crowd and used it to fuel the opening blitz responsible for Tuesday's 75-53 Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division thumping of visiting rival South Elgin.
Trailing 3-2, the Hawks ripped off 18 straight points to take a 20-3 lead. An 11-0 run in the second quarter staked them to a 38-17 halftime cushion, which swelled to 25 points twice in the fourth quarter.
"Basically, we came out hot right away," said 6-foot-4 junior forward Jason Hasenberg, who scored 9 of Bartlett's 23 first-quarter points. "I think they only had 3 points after four minutes, five minutes in the game. I think that the fans really helped us gather that energy."
"It was a great start," Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith said. "I thought the kids did a great job of letting the experience and the atmosphere kind of dictate their style of play."
Whereas Bartlett's senior-laden team fed off the District U-46 rivalry crowd's intensity, younger, less-experience South Elgin was thrown off by it.
"We were all kind of nervous," South Elgin senior Julian Lynch said. "We needed to settle down and get into our flow. We got into it later in the game, but our downfall started in the first quarter.
"What was it, 20-3? Not the start you were hoping for," South Elgin coach Matt Petersen said. "Most of these guys haven't played in that kind of environment and they weren't ready. We were not remembering little, simple things that we talked about all day to do. We couldn't do them to start the game. Then we had the same problems as usual: when things go bad we revert to jacking bad shots and not playing defense. It just kept snowballing until we finally settled down."
Hasenberg and Ryan DiCanio each sank a pair of first-quarter 3-pointers to set the tone for the night. Bartlett (16-7, 7-3) made nearly as many shots from 3-point range (11) as from 2-point range (14). DiCanio led the way with six 3-pointers as part of his 26-point performance.
"With that press, we broke it fairly easily and I was just in that corner every time," DiCanio said. "They never came out on me and I was feeling it out there. And they didn't close out very well."
South Elgin (8-16, 3-6) was led by junior guard Matty Smith's 14 points, 11 points from 6-foot-9 junior center Tyler Hankins and 10 points by junior guard Justin Howard. The Storm visit East Aurora on Thursday.
Hasenberg finished with 16 points, Robby Jimenez added 10 points, Jordan Anderson finished with 9 points and 5 rebounds and Cal Pauletti dished 7 assists for Bartlett, which plays at Waubonsie Valley on Thursday.