Girls Basketball: Bartlett shakes off sluggish start, tops Dundee-Crown

Updated: December 26, 2011 10:56PM

Whether it was Dundee-Crown fiercely protecting its home court Monday at the 29th annual Chargers Classic, or a case of the post-Christmas blahs, Bartlett’s girls basketball team through almost three quarters failed to resemble the unbeaten team that had earned tourney favorite status.

Then the Hawks used a familiar weapon to ignite — their fast break — and pulled away for a 58-36 victory behind a team-high 15 points from Haley Videckis and their strong “bench mob.”

“I didn’t have much to say to them except whatever they did to get ready for the game today, don’t do it tomorrow,” Bartlett coach Denise Sarna said.

When guard Ali Sanders scored the last of her team-high 14 points on a 17-footer from the side, she cut Bartlett’s lead to 33-27 with two minutes remaining until the fourth quarter.

However, the Hawks got on a roll after that with the final seven points of the quarter and a 10-2 run early in the fourth quarter to take a 50-32 lead that broke open the game.

“We did a good job of stopping their fast break the whole game and then we gave them four (fast break buckets) and it just opened it all up for them,” D-C coach Michelle Russell said after her team’s seven-game winning streak came to a halt. “They’ve got a good team and are undefeated for a reason. I thought we played the best we could and there wasn’t anything more we could have asked of them.”

The Indiana-bound Videckis hit a 3-pointer and had a rebound bucket in the 7-0 run to end the third quarter. Then the Hawks got five layups, including four on the fast break, early in the fourth quarter to break it open. Videckis, Janessa Baker, Ashley Johnson, and Kristin Coniff each had a fast break bucket in the streak.

Until the early third quarter, Bartlett (15-0) had hit only 10-of-29 from the floor (34 percent).

“They (D-C) were on their seven-game win streak and I can see why,” Sarna said. “They played really hard and they came to play today and I give them a lot of credit.

“When they were missing their shots, they were following up on their own misses and aggressively going hard to the hole.”

The shooting got a little better in the second half for Bartlett (14-of-33, 42 percent), but the fast break made the difference.

Johnson had five of her nine points in the fourth quarter coming off the bench.

“We always get a spark from our players coming off the bench and once again Nicole Gobbo and Ashley sparked us coming off the bench,” Sarna said.

Lisa Palmer had 11 points and Kristin Conniff 12 for Bartlett.

The Chargers (7-5) had 10 points and nine boards from Diamond Williams, and a strong defensive effort by Jillian Wiechmann.

“We put her on Videckis and until she got tired at the end I thought she did a really good job,” Russell said.

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