STC East Ends Batavia Girls Basketball Season

Leading 19-13 after one quarter and 29-25 at halftime, it appeared Batavia’s girls basketball team on Monday night had St. Charles East right where it wanted.

Then the third quarter came, and the Bulldogs’ season went along with it.

Batavia (8-19), trying to earn its third victory in as many tries this season over St. Charles East (11-17), was outscored 24-4 during the decisive third quarter and could never recover en route to a 64-48 loss to the Saints in the opening round of the Class 4A regional tournament.

“That was it,” Batavia Coach Tim DeBruycker said of the third quarter. “Other than that, we won the game by four points in three quarters. But we lost by 20 (points) in the other quarter. You can’t go down 24-4 in the third quarter and expect to win.”

St. Charles East, which had lost to Batavia and earlier this season, went on a 21-2 third-quarter surge to turn the four-point halftime deficit into a 46-31 lead late in the period.

Super Saints

Sophomore guard Paige Jordan fueled the comeback with nine of her 16 points, supported by freshman guard Amanda Hilton and junior forward Morgan Vyzral, who combined for 12 third-period points.

“That was the game right there,” said Saints Coach Lori Drumtra, whose team led 49-33 after three quarters. “I give a lot of credit to Amanda (Hilton), Paige (Jordan) and Annie (Martines). They were all able to get to the basket and make things happen.”

Playing in the first postseason game of her high-school career, Hilton poured in a game-high 20 points while adding seven rebounds, six assists and a pair of steals.

“Our whole team thought of it as a regular-season game," Hilton said. “It was just like any other game. But we did have it in the back of our minds that we had lost to them twice before.”

Beaten Bulldogs

While the Saints found their shooting touch, making 7 of 10 third-quarter field goals and 8 of 10 free throws, the Bulldogs were unable to find the range.

“It was a little bit of everything,” DeBruycker said. “I don’t think we turned the ball over too much. But nothing was going in. We just didn’t shoot the ball well.”

Batavia made just 2 of 16 field-goal tries in the third quarter.

“It seemed like we couldn’t hit anything and they couldn’t miss,” DeBruycker said. “They beat us down in the third quarter.”

The Bulldogs never got closer than 11 points the rest of the way, despite a team-leading 18 points from freshman guard Liza Fruendt.

Maddie Sychta finished with 13 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots, while fellow senior Katie Baglieri added seven points in their final prep games.