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Boys Basketball: Batavia battles back to top Rockford East
Updated: December 19, 2011 5:59PM
Sometimes high school basketball just doesn’t figure.
Batavia couldn’t buy a basket in the first quarter, turned the ball over nine times in the second and found itself trailing by 16 points – 37-21 – to third-seeded Rockford East Monday morning in its opening round game of the Elgin Holiday Tournament.
So what changes did coach Jim Roberts make that enabled his team to complete a 29-point swing after trailing by 18 early in the third quarter of a 73-62 win in overtime?
None.
“The Xs and Os were the same,” said senior center Cole Gardner, who fueled the comeback by scoring 17 of his 28 points and pulling down 16 of his 20 rebounds, both game highs, in the second half.
“We did it all the same. It was working (in the first half), we just weren’t executing.”
Batavia (3-5) made just 3 of 18 first-quarter shots and trailed 17-9.
“It’s the story of our season, not being able to play a complete game,” said Rockford East coach Roy Sackmaster, whose team’s offensive output was cut nearly in half (19 points) in the second half.
“That was probably our best start. Usually, we’ve started slow and rallied late. I emphasized at halftime that the first three minutes were important, that we didn’t want to let them hang around and get back in it.”
That’s what happened, though.
Junior guard Mike Rueffer (nine points) said Roberts stressed cutting the deficit to eight points by the end of the third quarter and four points with four minutes remaining.
The Bulldogs did just that as their trapping press helped force six E-Rab turnovers in the third quarter and margin dropped to 45-37. And when Gardner hit a turnaround baseline jumper with 4:57 remaining in regulation, Batavia trailed 49-45.
“We started being a little more aggressive,” said Roberts. “Not just offensively, but defensively. The first half we were like a step slo at both ends of the floor and they made us pay for it.”
“As bad as we were playing, we had some open looks. We obviously weren’t hitting them.”
Gardner’s putback with 13 seconds left in regulation sent it to overtime tied at 56-all and sophomore guard Micah Coffey drained a three-pointer from the top of the key with 3:00 left in overtime to give the Bulldogs their first lead of the game at 61-60.
Then they put it away by making 10 of 12 free throws the rest of the way.
“(Sophomore) Tucker Knox (4-4) was like automatic,” said Roberts, who got 10 points from Coffey, eight from Zach Strittmatter and seven from Knox.
Steve McNease, a 6-6 post player, led the E-Rabs (5-4) with 16 points, 15 rebounds and four blocked shots.
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