By Bobby Narang
The Batavia High School girls basketball team entered the holiday tournament season with a goal of making some noise.
The Bulldogs opened the season with a signature blowout road win against Benet Academy, but suffered tough losses to Kenwood and Geneva.
Set to play four games at the prestigious Morton College Girls Basketball Christmas Tournament, the Bulldogs earned quality wins over Sycamore, Butler Prep, and Fremd, before dropping a 57-39 decision to Alton in the championship game Saturday. Dec. 30.
The Bulldogs (14-3) left the gymnasium with a bitter taste due to committing 20 turnovers in the game and losing grip of the game in the fourth quarter. Brooke Carlson had a magnificent showing. She earned the tournament MVP honors despite struggling from the field in the championship game. Carlson scored 39 points in an electric performance in the semifinals against Fremd.
But Alton held Carlson, a Colorado State University recruit, to 16 points.
“This will help us,” Carlson said. “I felt we needed to get knocked down to hopefully come back on top. It’s amazing what we did. We showed we can play with anybody.”
Batavia senior guard, Kylee Gehrt, said the loss should motivate the team in the tail end of the regular season.
“This whole tournament we stuck with all these tough teams,” Gehrt said. “We had some close games, but today it was just the fourth quarter. We need to learn from this, and hopefully we get a second chance against them.”
Batavia head coach, Kevin Jensen, said his players battled throughout the tough tournament. He gave credit to Alton for a good game plan.
“The speed of the game got us, especially in the last few minutes,” Jensen. “We were going little faster than we wanted to. That showed with a couple of shots that rimmed out that we normally make and passes got little quick or early. We were off a bit, but that’s what Alton’s speed level does. I couldn’t be more proud of what they did. It was a heck of a run.”