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Bartlett clinches outright UEC Valley title

Bartlett put the finishing touch on its Upstate Eight Valley championship with its signature style Tuesday night at East Aurora.

The Tomcats were attempting to play spoiler and doing a pretty good job of it, leading 37-33 with two minutes left in the third quarter after a 12-2 run to start the second half.

Bartlett prides itself on the ability to force turnovers, and the Hawks did that over and over again in the final two minutes. East Aurora struggled just to get the ball past half court, and the Hawks turned all those mistakes into quick baskets and an 11-0 run to end the third quarter, then added the first 6 points of the fourth.

Those 17 unanswered points keyed a 29-6 tear to end the game, a 62-43 win that clinched the outright Valley crown.

"In the second half I think we wore them down," first-year Bartlett coach Brad Hunt said. "We can't do that against every team but we did it well enough tonight."

Bartlett (17-10, 9-0) rolled through the Valley schedule. Its closest win was by 8 points over West Chicago.

The Hawks did it with a mix of experience and youth, seniors to freshmen all playing key roles.

"I'm so pleased from where we started in the year to where we are now," Hunt said. "We're a completely different team. The young ones are really starting to come along and make good decisions. I can't be more proud of a team than I am now."

One of those freshman, Justina Hernandez, scored 8 points Tuesday and was active on the diamond press that caused the Tomcats so many problems.

"I think we all played well together," Hernandez said. "For me as a freshman I think it's great.

"Our diamond helped turn the ball over and Kayla made some big shots."

That would be senior Kayla Hare who poured in 31 points including 8-of-8 shooting at the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.

She scored 7 points in a 30-second stretch at the end of the third quarter that put the Hawks ahead to stay.

Hare also was part of a conference championship team her sophomore year.

"We came in (to the season) pretty positive," Hare said. "We knew we had some good freshmen coming in and some girls coming from sophomore stepping up. We were excited."

East Aurora took an early 9-2 lead, and the Tomcats were still up 13-10 after the first quarter.

Hare scored 12 points in the first half as Bartlett battled back to a 31-25 halftime lead.

Hunt credited his bench of Hernandez, Savannah Standefer and Miranda Hedeen with making a big difference in the outcome.

"They all put in some quality minutes today," Hunt said.

Bartlett closes the regular season against West Aurora on Friday, then gets ready for regional play in Schaumburg against Batavia, who defeated the Hawks 54-39 early this season.

The winner of that game likely gets defending state champion Geneva.

"I know the seniors really wanted to win the conference," Hunt said. "The next goal is to win a regional. We have our work cut out for us but we are looking forward to the challenge."

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