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Pavell gives Bartlett spark it needs to beat Naperville Central

The shot Bartlett senior Nina Pavell launched in the direction of the basket at the end of the first quarter Tuesday won't win any prizes for form.

Function was a different story.

Pavell's buzzer-beating 3-pointer might have been the most important basket in the Hawks' 66-53 girls basketball victory against Naperville Central at the Naperville Central Tip-Off Tournament.

"I knew it was coming down and I got the ball and then I looked and there's a girl in front of me," said Pavell, who added a second-quarter 3-pointer to finish with 6 points. "I was going to pass, but there's not enough time to pass so I just threw it up there and then I watched and then I was like, it's looking pretty good actually. It went in. It sparked us just a little bit, so that was exciting."

Actually the shot didn't just go in the basket, it hit nothing but net.

"I just sort of laughed because I had no idea it was going in," Pavell said, still laughing.

Pavell ended a quarter in which the teams traded the lead five times by giving the Hawks a 19-12 lead.

"Huge shot," Bartlett coach Dave Mello said. "Huge shot. Obviously, it's not what we drew up, but it was great recognition on not only her part but the rest of the girls on the court. We got the ball up the court, we got it to a 3-point shooter with under a second left. She just threw it up there, and sometimes those go in. I mean, that gave us a big spark right there.

"The way this game was going, I didn't doubt for a second that we would need every single point. For her to recognize that and make that gave us a big lift going to the second quarter."

It was something of a backbreaker for Naperville Central.

"Especially because we had the ball down 4 and ... instead of being down 2, we're down 7," Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum said. "They're a good team."

Bartlett (2-1) ended the first half with a 34-25 lead only to see the Redhawks (1-2) cut the margin to 5 early in the third quarter. Then the Hawks really let loose with a press-sparked 16-1 run that ended with senior Mariah Martinez's runner in the lane with 2:39 to go. Just like that the lead was 20, though the Redhawks got it back to 15 by the end of the third.

"I knew they were going to make a run, but the way our press worked in that quarter is the way I'd like it to work more often," Mello said. "We just started getting them playing out of their pace, force turnovers and then we finish at the rim."

"Give Bartlett a lot of credit, they forced us out of doing a lot of the things that we wanted to do," Nussbaum added.

The Redhawks never got closer than 11 the rest of the game.

"I thought our last 11-12 minutes was pretty solid," Nussbaum said. "We just let it get away."

Senior Kaitlin Brohan led the Hawks with 19 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists. Sophomore Kayla Hare and senior Kelly Harris each scored 13.

Senior Hannah Swarm's 14 points were a game-best for Naperville Central. Sophomore Mia Lakstigala and freshman Lucy Schmid had 13 apiece.

Follow Orrin on Twitter @Orrin_Schwarz

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