Batavia blows out St. Charles North
Batavia senior Ava Sergio sank 9 field goals Thursday night against visiting St. Charles North so she had plenty to pick from, but it didn't take long to pick out her favorite.
The 6-foot-1 post looked more like a slippery smooth shooting guard when she spun past two defenders in the lane in the first quarter for a basket, drawing plenty of oohs and ahhs from the Bulldogs student section.
Sergio scored Batavia's first 8 points and the Bulldogs never looked back, dominating the North Stars 48-23 in DuKane Conference action.
"I had a couple buckets before that and got the ball down low and had two defenders in front of me so I just spun back," Sergio said. "It's being aware of where my defenders are. I had one behind me too and just went through them. Those are super fun."
The win pulls Batavia (10-10, 3-3) even with the North Stars (10-8, 3-3) in conference.
"They have beat us in the past a couple times and they were really good so we were looking forward to a win and it ended up being a big one," Sergio said.
That's an understatement. Batavia held St. Charles North to 4-for-23 shooting (17.3 percent) in the first half to take a 24-12 lead, then poured it on in the second half with a 20-2 run that made it 44-14 early in the fourth quarter to start a running clock.
"That was fun," Batavia coach Kevin Jensen said.
The victory also marked Batavia's fourth in a row in the first game back for four-year senior guard Hailey Orman (left wrist), though the Bulldogs are still playing without another senior starter, forward Geddy Rerko (knee).
Orman sank a pair of 3-pointers and scored 6 points.
"We're all really confident right now," junior guard Erin Golden said. "We've had a couple shaky points but we've overcome those and we all feel really good right now. Hopefully we'll be getting Geddy back soon."
Sergio got the Bulldogs off to a fast start, erasing the North Stars' only lead of the night, 1-0 on a Claire Jakaitis free throw. Sergio rebounded a missed fastbreak layup by Allison Newberry after Newberry came up with the first of her three steals while playing tight defense on the North Stars' leading scorer Annie Tate.
Newberry capped the first quarter with another steal, and this time she scored while being fouled for a 3-point play and 11-4 lead.
After Sergio's fast start, Golden heated up in the second half scoring 11 of her 17 points. She added 9 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 assists.
"We've had to overcome so much," Jensen said. "Playing without some of our key players. Shuffling some of our players to new positions.
"There was no miraculous game plan. The girls played their butts off. Our girls bought into what we want to be defensively as a team and it showed tonight."
Sergio led all scorers with 18 points plus 6 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocked shots.
Nothing went right all night for the North Stars who will try to bounce back Saturday against Wheaton Warrenville South.
"There are lessons you don't necessarily want to learn sometimes," St. Charles North coach Mike Tomczak said. "Sometimes you are taught the hard way. Credit Batavia. Don't take anything away from them but when you have a young team you have a group that will go toe-to-toe against a state quality team Tuesday (Wheaton North) and then come out here and it looks like we've never played basketball before."
Tate paced the North Stars with 6 points.
"We do have great players and they play hard but I guess sometimes you have nights like this," Tomczak said. "No one is going to be more disappointed than they are in the locker room right now. It was a rough night."