Kaidyn King gets energized, rallies Batavia past Naperville North at MLK Showdown

BATAVIA – Batavia senior Kaidyn King got energized late Monday night in the Bulldogs 52-50 victory over Naperville North in the final game of the MLK Showdown.

King scored 10 of her team-best 16 points in the fourth quarter, including all eight in a game-changing 8-0 run to open it.

“It’s all about the reads that their defense is giving me,” King said. “If they’re guarding me up close, like that team thought I was more of a shooter, and once I noticed it I thought it was easier to get around and get inside. But if a team is giving me a step, it’s more of a shooting game and we’re going to take more threes.”

Batavia (16-6) fell behind 10-3 midway through the first quarter.

Naperville North (9-12) led 27-23 at halftime.

“I think honestly in the first half of the game our team, our energy was down and when we got into the room at half we talked about how the energy was down,” King said. “So when I started getting energy from the bench and my teammates I was (also) just able to drive more because they were giving those openings and we had a lot more grit.”

Junior Natalie Frempong’s acrobatic layup that turned into a three-point play late in the third quarter gave the Huskies a 40-37 lead. They wouldn’t score again until freshman Sydney Smith’s reverse layup with 3:44 left pulled them to within 45-42.

Another drive for two from King made it 47-42. A couple free throws from senior Julia Arulandu made it 49-42 with 32 seconds remaining. The Bulldogs were pulling away.

“I think we’ve been preaching putting four quarters together and executing on the offensive end and executing on the defensive end as well,” Naperville North coach Aly Miller said. “And I think we did that for most of the game. I thought there were a few offensive possessions that kind of cost us in the end, but proud of our efforts the whole game.”

With Hallie Crane sidelined, the Bulldogs are welcoming their players to pick up some of the offensive load. King presided. She picked the perfect day on the calendar to do it.

“She did a great job,” Bulldogs coach Kevin Jensen said. “She didn’t get many breaks in guarding the toughest kid, and played well for us offensively. It was really good for her. So it was huge that Kaidyn and Natalie (Warner, 10 points) had nice games. And Julia (Arulandu) had eight points and (Riley) Bainter hit a three for us. There were a bunch of little things here and there that helped us win today. We don’t have anybody with Hallie out that we’re counting on to go for 18.”

King just about did.

“It’s awesome kind of seeing someone like kind of take over, because we were down and we needed someone to pick the energy up,” Warner said. “So when she came out with a good fourth quarter everyone else kind of followed her lead to hold that lead up then.”

Arulandu’s two free throws with 6.3 seconds remaining made it 52-47.

Frempong’s three-pointer at the buzzer caromed high off the back of the rim before dropping through to complete the scoring. She had a game-high 23 points while sophomore Ava Podkasik scored nine.

“Obviously the ball ends up in her (Frempong’s) hands a lot,” Miller said. “And this year especially she’s done a really good job of finding our shooters but also hunting for her own shots as well. And obviously on the defensive end she’s a great part of what we’re doing there too. She plays really hard on both sides of the floor for us.”