Bartlett rallies from 14 down, knocks off Hinsdale Central
Bartlett overcame a 14-point first quarter deficit to beat visiting Hinsdale Central 67-62 in nonconference action Saturday afternoon.
The Hawks managed only three baskets and trailed 21-7 after the first eight minutes.
Momentum swung Bartlett's way when it stepped up its defense. The Hawks chipped away at the Red Devils' lead in the second and third quarters and took the lead early in the fourth quarter.
“We really came out flat and they hit their shots from the perimeter. We were giving out kick-out 3s and giving up easy postups,” Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith said. “But we buckled down in the second and third quarters to climb back into it.”
The Hawks narrowed the Red Devils' lead to 32-23 at halftime, and trailed only 44-41 to start the fourth quarter.
“We defended better after the first quarter. We like to run at a high pace and it's hard to set that pace when you are catching the ball through the net,” Wolfsmith said. “When we defended better, we hit our pace and that opened shots up.”
“We did not finish our shots and we did not finish our game,” Hinsdale Central coach Nick Latorre said. “Give them a lot of credit, they did not give up. We had some decent leads, but we couldn't put some stops together.”
Bartlett's Kegan Kunzer's jumper, the first basket of the fourth quarter, pulled the Hawks within one.
Ravi Banipal's layup for the first Bartlett lead fell short, but the senior was fouled on the attempt. Banipal canned both free throws for the Hawks' first lead of the day, 45-44.
A Ben Oosterbaan basket at the 7:01 mark of period put Hinsdale Central briefly backup on top. The senior scored a team-high 23 points.
On the Hawks' next possession, Banipal's pull-up jumper returned the lead to Hawks, 47-46 with 6:20 left to play.
Bartlett (9-2) started to pull away. Reserve Shubh Mangrola's 3-pointer from the left wing put the Hawks' up 57-48 at the halfway point of the period.
Hinsdale Central started fouling in an effort to get the ball back. Bartlett took advantage of the trips to the free-throw line by making 10 of the 16 free throws in the last four minutes. The Red Devils were unable to close the gap.
Bartlett's Nathan Scearce and Kelton McEwen provided most of the teams' offense and were key to the Hawks' comeback. Scearce score a game-high 24 points, with 11 points in the third quarter.
Scearce said defense was one of the keys to the win.
“We started playing more as a team and played better 'D,'” said the junior. “We got stops and then we started hitting more shots.”
McEwen tallied 23 points. The junior drained two treys in the second quarter that were closer to the half-court line than the 3-point arc. In addition to connecting on seven of 10 free throws in the fourth quarter, McEwen pulled down seven rebounds.
Evan Phillips scored 10 points for Hinsdale Central.