Bartlett overcomes slow start, holds off Wheaton North
Seeing Wheaton North score the first 10 points in Tuesday's Class 4A girls basketball regional on the Falcons' home court could have been a knockout blow for Bartlett.
Instead it just seemed to fire up the Hawks.
"We had a little mental breakdown, but the fact that our team kept pushing, we just kept going, and the fact that we could keep pushing even being down 10, it really fired us up and really made us want to win that game even more," Bartlett junior Kelly Harris said.
The sixth-seeded Hawks needed every ounce of emotion they could manage to hold off the No. 11 Falcons, winning 43-40.
"Our kids came out, knocked down a couple of shots early and we sort of got in our rhythm," Falcons coach Dave Eaton said. "Our goal was to try to get into the 60s or 70s. We knew they play great half-court defense. They play real slow on offense. They're really deliberate in what they do, and we wanted to get the game into our style of play, an uptempo game. They won the battle of tempo."
The Hawks advance to the regional final against No. 3 seed York at 7 p.m. Thursday.
"It means so much to us. We want to keep going so bad, and we just want to keep pushing and keep racking up our wins," Harris said.
It didn't look like it would be the Hawks' night at first. Emmy Gryna's corner 3-pointer gave the Falcons a 10-0 lead, and the margin was 14-2 when freshman Hannah Swider made a pair of free throws.
But Bartlett (19-9) outscored Wheaton North 11-2 over the final 2:32 of the first quarter, then took their first lead at 21-20 with a minute left in the second on Kaitlin Brohan's layup.
"Wheaton North, that was a rough draw for a first-round game," Bartlett coach Denise Sarna said. "They're a really solid team and they're playing really well. On their home court they came out on fire. I was proud of our girls because that's a rough start to come out and weather, and I thought we did a good job of weathering the first flurry of points by them and came back, settled down and played some defense."
Wheaton North (12-13) took its final lead with 1:15 to play when senior Emari Jones knocked down two free throws to make the score 40-39.
"We were close," Eaton said. "We just needed one more stop here or there. Maybe if we could have held onto the ball a little bit, not turned it over, it would have been great."
Harris scored the final field goal of the game with a minute to go to swing the lead back to Bartlett, then she made the defensive play of the game, coming over to help defensively when a Wheaton North player drove the baseline and blocking a shot with 25 seconds left.
"They told us we needed a stop. I saw her and I knew I had help," the 6-foot-1 Harris said.
Brohan led the Hawks with 16 points and added 4 steals.
"Kaitlin had an amazing game," Harris said. "She brought it to the basket and she kept driving all the way. She really helped us a lot."
Bartlett junior Shelley Lyjak added 10 points and 4 assists.
"She's our fireplug, and she didn't disappoint today," Sarna said. "I thought she really had a great game and showed a lot of energy. She always shows heart, and our team feeds off it."
Harris grabbed 11 rebounds and had 3 blocked shots.
Senior Kelly Thornton led the Falcons with 14 points. Jones had 8 points and 9 rebounds.
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