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Bartlett routs South Elgin again

There is no doubt that the Bartlett girls basketball team has South Elgin's number this year.

The Hawks stopped the Storm's 8-game win streak right in its tracks on Friday night by running their own win streak to 6 games with a 70-36 rout in Upstate Eight Valley Division action. The Hawks won by 24 points in the first meeting of the season between the two rivals.

The Hawks improved to 6-0 in the Valley Division to maintain a 2-game lead with 4 games to go. Kaitlin Brohan led the way with 24 points.

"It's another big win in the conference," Bartlett coach Dave Mello said. "They are big at this point. We just need to keep taking care of business."

What makes the win more impressive is that South Elgin had been averaging over 65 points per game during its win streak. The Hawks (15-7) held the Storm to just 11 of 46 (24 percent) shooting from the field.

"We really like the way we match up against them defensively," Mello said. "We are able to put Nicole (Gerdevich) against their top scorer (Teagan) Pompa and Nicole's length can really cause some problems. And today we decided not to go with pressure which is our go-to card on defense and instead just played half court and showed we can play that pretty well, too."

The Hawks' offense was clicking, too, with nine 3-pointers.

"We have really found our stroke from the perimeter," Mello said. "We are starting and ending practices with 3 point shooting contests and its good to see it carrying over to the games."

Mariah Martinez hit a 3-pointer in the first quarter to close out a 9-0 run that put the Hawks up 18-8. Bartlett extended the lead to 35-18 by halftime and then blew the game wide open in the third quarter.

Bartlett hit 12 of 14 shots from the field in the third quarter to score 29 points and open a 64-24 lead.

"Obviously going against our rival we wanted to come out strong," Brohan said. "Our team played great. They work well together and really gelled tonight."

South Elgin (15-6, 3-4) was led in scoring by Nadia Yang with 8 points.

"We just have bad matchups against them," South Elgin coach Dan Mandernack said. "Their taller guards really give us a problem. But this is not do or die. It's one game that we have to let go and get over."

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