Girls Basketball: Tessa Towers makes impressive varsity debut for Batavia

NAPERVILLE – Batavia center Tessa Towers said people frequently compare her to a defensive lineman.

Given her height and powerful build, it’s a somewhat apt if inelegant description, yet one the 6-foot-4 sophomore rejects.

“I get considered (to be) like a defensive lineman a lot,” Towers said. “I’m like, ‘No, I can run a lot faster and I have the ability.’”

Towers is actually smaller than her three siblings, who include brothers Ethan and Tyler, who played football for the Bulldogs.

Ethan, who starred for Batavia’s 2017 state championship team, actually is a defensive lineman who is a freshman at the University of Sioux Falls.

As for Tessa, well, she’s bound to make a mark on the basketball court. She was a raw if impressive presence in Batavia’s season-opening 64-49 loss to Neuqua Valley on Tuesday. Towers, making her first varsity start, recorded 10 points and seven rebounds, including six on the offensive glass.

“I don’t think she knows where her ceiling is,” Batavia coach Kevin Jensen said. “For example, there was a play in transition in the second half where a ball was outletted to Erin (Golden) near halfcourt.

“Erin then threw a diagonal pass to Tessa who was sprinting down the floor and beat every one. She beat everyone down the floor, she caught the pass in a run and finished the layup. That’s a tough thing to do for any high school girl and she did a nice job.”

Golden and fellow guard Katherine Polick are the Bulldogs’ only seniors. The rest of the roster has little varsity experience.

That showed at times against the host Wildcats, who trailed 2-0 after Towers sank two free throws early in the first quarter but soon took the lead for good.

Neuqua led by as many as nine points in the first half before the Bulldogs tied it at 27-27 on a 3-pointer by sophomore guard Claire Nazos with 32 seconds left in the second quarter.

After Neuqua regained a seven-point lead in the third quarter, Batavia again pulled even when Alyssa Sarick drained a 3 to tie it at 37.

“I thought we played well,” Jensen said. “I told them it’s going to be a gradual climb for us.

“Erin and Catherine are our only two seniors and they’ve got experience from the last four years and they’re going to be a big part of everything, but a lot of our girls are sophomores.

“All things considered, we walked away pretty happy with how we played.”

Nazos led the Bulldogs with 15 points, including four 3-pointers, the last of which cut Neuqua’s lead to 51-46 with 5:05 to go in the fourth quarter. But Nazos injured her knee on the play and did not return.

Junior Morgan Haug had eight points off the bench, while Golden had six points and seven rebounds and Polick had eight rebounds.

Neuqua was paced by 6-2 junior center Claudia Gallegos, who had 19 points and 11 rebounds while matched up against Towers.

“I think we played pretty well,” Towers said. “There’s some things we’ve got to work on but I think we did pretty well for our first game and we’ll probably get better throughout the season.”

As for her own play, Towers feels she is a work in progress, like her team.

“I played on JV last year so I just really haven’t had the chance to go into a varsity game, which is much different, much faster and more competitive and I have to fake more,” Towers said. “I still have things to work on but I still have two more years to get better at the sport I love.”