Batavia held off a furious Glenbard North fourth-quarter comeback Friday night to win the DuKane Conference matchup 48-43.

Trailing by 15 points at the start of last period, host Glenbard North rallied to pull within 44-41 with 31.4 seconds left.

The Panthers were forced to foul the Bulldogs, and Batavia took advantage of three trips to the free-throw line, canning four of the six charity tosses to hand Glenbard North its fourth loss of the season.

It was the third time the two conference rivals met, with Glenbard North winning the first two. The Panthers won 49-47 in overtime in a league game early in December at Batavia and then downed the Bulldogs 49-45 in a Jack Tosh Christmas tournament contest at York.

“I knew we were going to win. I trusted my teammates. They were going to knock down the free throws,” said Joe Reid who led Batavia’s scoring with 13 points.

Matt Welch sparked Glenbard North’s comeback scoring the first eight points of the team’s 18-6 run in the fourth quarter. Twelve of the senior’s 14 points came in the final frame.

Momentum completely swung to the Panthers during the last eight minutes. Batavia scored only one basket during Glenbard North’s scoring spree, a Dana Farrar 3-pointer from the left wing.

“Everything we did early on kept us at a safe distance,” said Batavia coach Jim Nazos. “We did a lot of things well in the middle quarters by being in the right spots defensively and getting good looks offensively. We were in the right spots a lot. In the fourth quarter, we were getting open looks, but the shots kept rimming out.”

Batavia completely controlled the game during the middle of the game. The Bulldogs forced 11 turnovers and limited the Panthers to single digits during the second and third quarters.

Glenbard North (16-4, 6-2) held a 10-8 lead after the first quarter thanks to a 3-point shot from the right wing by Outuro Redento, who also scored 14 points.

Batavia (12-8, 5-3) took the lead for good 17-16 on Farrar’s baseline layup at the 3:01 mark of the second quarter.

Evan Blankenship (11 points) closed out the Bulldogs’ first half scoring with a trey from the top of the key for a Batavia 26-16 advantage at halftime. The senior drained three shots from beyond the arc in the first half.

“The win is good, but what feels better is that we are playing better than we did last month,” Nazos said.

“To be down 15, that’s a tough spot for us. I thought we did a nice job of fighting back,” Glenbard North coach Kevin Tonn said. “We just didn’t shoot the ball well tonight. Credit their defense for that.”

Batavia’s Brett Berggren finished with 11 points.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20260123/boys-basketball/boys-basketball-surging-batavia-builds-big-lead-survives-glenbard-norths-comeback/