Batavia’s pressure defense rattles Rolling Meadows

LA GRANGE PARK – The true Batavia Bulldogs and their relentless defense returned Saturday, and that was not good news for Rolling Meadows.

At Saturday’s 35th annual Coach Kipp’s Hoopfest at Nazareth Academy, Batavia (15-6) blitzed the Mustangs with a pressure defense that forced 12 turnovers in the first quarter alone and 19 in the half, which ended with the Bulldogs in command at 32-9.

For good measure, Batavia added a 5-second turnover to start the second half on its way to a 55-29 win.

Senior guard Julie Arulandu admitted that the Bulldogs have been a little off in recent games and practices, but the intensity picked up in Friday’s practice and carried over into Saturday’s game.

“Honestly, the last couple games I would say we haven’t been playing our true selves,” said Arulandu, who had four steals and two blocks. “With practice we usually have super fast, super aggressive practices, but not so much for a couple. We had a way better practice yesterday. I mean, no one likes to run a lot, but it translated to today’s game and it changed our game.”

The Mustangs entered play with a 15-5 record, but committed 10 turnovers in the first four minutes and were blanked until Abby Ramel scored on a putback at the buzzer to make it 12-2 Bulldogs after one quarter.

“Obviously we prepared for what they do, but until you see it in person … it’s a little bit different,” Rolling Meadows coach Ryan Kirkorsky said. “They play their system at a really high level, and it took us some time to figure it out. Actually, I was kind of pleased with how our kids stuck with it. Playing competition like that is going to help us as the season goes on.”

Batavia didn’t just start strong on defense. Natalie Warner hit an early 3-pointer and then Sam Jansey caught fire in the second quarter, knocking down five 3s while scoring all 17 of her points in the team’s 20-point second quarter.

“It keeps the energy up. When our team starts going well on offense and hitting those shots it really helps,” said Jansey. “Once those shots go in I gain more confidence and feel like the shots are going to fall, so I just keep shooting.”

Jansey and Warner combined for nine 3s in the game while each scored 17 points, but again, it was the defense that led the way. The Mustangs finished with 25 turnovers and Hallie Cane matched Arulandu’s team-leading four steals for the Bulldogs.

“Our team really focuses on defense a lot,” Jansey said. “Like in practice we work hard on staying in front and just working our butts off on defense. We really value that as a team.

“When we were in the huddle we talked about keeping the energy up.”

Ramel led Rolling Meadows with 13 points and Dalia Grandberry had nine rebounds.

“We have to play with that type of energy to be successful,” Batavia coach Kevin Jensen said. “It’s not like we have a ton of kids with a lot of size. It’s all about our energy and how much pressure we can put on people. You look at things like how many times you can get three stops in a row, and we had a bunch of them in the first half. We did a great job [on defense], and then it helped that Sam Jansey got hot.”

In earlier games at Nazareth Saturday, Downers Grove South beat Maine West 48-18 behind 22 points and eight boards from Hayven Harden, and Sandburg defeated Geneva 62-55 despite a game-high 19 points from the Vikings’ Bridget Hecker.