St. Charles East holds off Batavia for much-needed victory

ST. CHARLES – St. Charles East’s boys basketball team needed a victory Friday.

“We’ve been close,” said Saints coach Rob Klemm, whose team dropped a 44-37 decision to DuKane Conference leading Geneva on Wednesday and lost a one-point, double-overtime decision earlier in the season to Lake Park.

Building an 11-point lead midway through the final quarter, the Saints held off a furious late rally to edge Batavia 54-53 in St. Charles.

“Every game is a dogfight in our conference,” Klemm said. “Hopefully, we can use this as a momentum builder. We have a quick turnaround because we play a very good Hoffman Estates team tomorrow morning (at Lake Park).”

Senior guard Gavin Szerlong led the Saints (8-8, 3-3) with 20 points, nine rebounds and a pair of steals as the Saints used a 12-5 third quarter surge to build a 41-33 advantage heading into the final quarter.

“We’ve struggled against Batavia every year since I’ve been here, so it feels nice to get this win,” said Szerlong, who knocked down four 3-pointers and made 4 of his 5 second half field goal attempts. “They’re a well-coached team, but I felt like we matched up well with them.”

Playing without starter Andrew Wolfsmith (ankle) and key reserve Cooper Jensen (illness), the Saints received a huge lift off the bench from junior point guard Reese Dumpit, who contributed 11 points, including four consecutive free throws in the final 43 seconds.

“Before the game, he looked like was locked in,” Klemm said. “Without Andrew (Wolfsmith) and Cooper (Jensen), he took advantage of his opportunity for increased playing time.

“We knew he was capable of it. He has great handles, and it allowed Gavin (Szerlong) to play more off the ball.”

After Michael Hill’s driving layup gave the Saints a 38-33 lead with 1:56 left in the third quarter, both teams went cold before Dumpit drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 4 seconds remaining to make it 41-33.

“That was a huge 3 for us,” said Klemm, whose team had four starters resting at the time.

“Coach (Klemm) has been preaching to us about finishing quarters because it’s something we haven’t always done this season,” Szerlong said. “It was great to see Reese hit that one.”

The Saints also received contributions from Sam Tisch (7 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists), Brad Monkemeyer (7 points, 6 rebounds) and Marco Klebosits (3 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals). Klebosits also drew the difficult assignment of defending the Bulldogs’ 6-foot-8 senior Jax Abalos, who finished with 14 points and six rebounds but was held to a single free throw in the fourth quarter.

“Marco’s defense was incredible,” Klemm said. “Jax (Abalos) is a fantastic basketball player but Marco took it as a challenge. He needed to earn his shots.”

Junior guard Xavier Justice led all scorers with 24 points for Batavia (7-8, 2-4), including 15 in the fourth quarter — three 3-pointers during the last 15 seconds.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20250110/boys-basketball/boys-basketball-szerlong-helps-st-charles-east-hold-off-batavias-late-surge/