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St. Joseph hands Batavia its 3rd straight loss

Batavia and St. Joseph both entered Saturday night on the heels of a disappointing loss Friday, the Bulldogs to their rival Geneva and the Chargers by 28 points to Brother Rice.

Thanks to its pressure man-to-man defense that held Batavia to 37.3 percent shooting (16 for 43) and forced four turnovers that turned into dunks going the other way, it was St. Joseph who righted its ship with a 54-42 victory at the Bulldogs' 25th annual Jim and Sylvia Roberts Night of Hoops.

Batavia (18-6) led briefly in the first quarter before falling behind in the second quarter and trailing by double digits throughout the second half of its third straight loss.

Coach Jim Nazos said the Bulldogs' problems are showing on both ends of the court.

"Offensively I know we aren't shooting the ball well but good teams find other ways to win," Nazos said. "Good teams find ways to win games 36-34 if that's what's called for. We can never blame it on poor shooting, there's other things we can do. Get on the free-throw line, there's plenty of offensive boards. We have to get back to work."

Jayden Johnson opened the game with a 3-point basket for Batavia, and Eric Peterson (10 points) scored on a backdoor cut followed by a Collin Richter basket for a 7-5 lead.

St. Joseph (12-8) scored the final 3 points of the first quarter to lead 8-7, then held Batavia to 3-of-10 shooting in the second to extend the margin to 22-15 at halftime.

It got worse for Batavia in the third quarter when Johnson and Kyle LeFevre hit the only two field goals.

"Even if we're struggling scoring we have to keep them down to have a chance," said LeFevre, who led the Bulldogs in scoring for the second consecutive game, this time with 12 points. "We have to be more active defensively, more hands on the ball, more steals, make something happen."

Like it did Friday against Geneva, Batavia's best offensive quarter by far was the fourth. On Friday the Bulldogs scored as many points in the fourth - 31 - as the first three combined.

Against St. Joe, Batavia scored more points in the fourth - 22 - than the first three combined, 20. Clayton Deutsch provided the final 6 of those points with a pair of 3-point shots.

"We need to have urgency the whole game and it's kind of coming out only the fourth quarter right now," LeFevre said.

"There is more urgency (in the fourth)," Nazos said. "We have to be a lot more urgent earlier."

Jordan Boyd led all scorers with 16 points, Chanz Aldridge had 13 and Jalen Boyd 12 for the Chargers, who made 19 of 30 shots from the field (63.3 percent).

"We knew we would have our hands full, they shoot a lot of 3s and we needed to play good defense," St. Joseph Hall of Fame coach Gene Pingatore said. "We've been struggling. Hopefully this is the kind of game that jump starts us the rest of the way."

Nazos hopes a full week of practice will help Batavia get back on track.

"We need to look at some film, some of the things we are doing wrong," Nazos said. "There's lapses that are happening in the game that we have to step back and look at ourselves and see where they are at. Offensively we get stagnant. Defensively we are not getting our hands on the ball as much as we should."

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