Batavia Hoops

The New Richmond Lions traveled on up to Batavia for a 3 game home stand for the Bulldogs. Here’s some notes about the Freshman game ⬇️

Game Recap: The Batavia Freshman team extended their perfect season with a commanding 58-23 victory over New Richmond at home, improving their record to an impressive 11-0. The team showcased their depth and balanced scoring attack in what became a dominant performance from start to finish.

Batavia jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, opening the game with a 6-0 run fueled by baskets from Bentley Brown, Steele Peavely, and Elijah Weisbrodt. The team’s hot shooting continued throughout the first quarter as they built an 18-3 advantage, with Peavely leading the way with 4 points in the period. The second quarter saw Tyson Eads take over, contributing 5 points including a beautiful three-pointer that helped stretch the lead to 28-9 at one point.

The third quarter belonged to Elijah Weisbrodt, who put together an outstanding individual performance by scoring 10 points in the period, including an impressive 8-point scoring streak. Weisbrodt finished as the game’s leading scorer with 14 points on efficient 6-9 shooting from the field while making both of his free throw attempts. Steele Peavely also had an excellent night, contributing 11 points on 5-7 field goal shooting and connecting on 1 of 2 three-point attempts. Tyson Eads added 7 points with solid shooting (3-5 FG, 1-2 3PT), while both Zion Harris and Gage Westerkamp chipped in 6 points each to round out the balanced scoring effort.

The fourth quarter saw the team close out the game in style, with Steele Peavely opening the period with a three-pointer and Zion Harris adding 6 points to help seal the victory. The win demonstrated the team’s incredible depth, as multiple players contributed meaningfully and the coaching staff was able to give valuable playing time to the entire roster while maintaining their dominant performance throughout all four quarters.

Some of my favorite moments from yesterday’s game:

Bentley Brown was struggling with free throws, as do all freshmen basketball players, during games (5-13 on the season) and a recent stretch of practice. I worked with him on reforming his free throw form all the way down to square one, highlighting balance, bent knees, using your legs and arms in tandem to start your shot, and finishing high. Whenever you’re reconstructing and tweaking form it is typically best practice to do so one handed. Bentley proceeded to make 8 free throws in a row using his one handed form and his touch looked remarkably improved. Bentley then tried doing his one handed form during the game after getting fouled on a layup attempt. He missed both of them but the process of his shot looked much more organized and his touch looks like he’ll give the ball a better chance at getting favorable rolls and bounces. He abandoned the one handed form during his second stint at the line later in the game but I think there is something there.

Another thing that stuck out to me was Gage Westerkamp’s free throw attempts in the game. Coach Faris and I have been hard on Gage to shoot the ball when he’s in the paint because he is so much bigger than everyone and in doing so he will either score more or earn more trips to the free throw line. We were particularly hard on his this week and practice and it seemed to have paid dividends in the New Richmond matchup. Gage went to the line 10 times in the game, 8 times in the first half. New Richmond’s entire team shot 14 total free throws. We’re hoping his aggressiveness will continue and his comfortability grows in doing so.

Other notes include Elijah Weisbrodt continuing an impressive stretch of efficient basketball. Over the past 6 games, Weisbrodt has averaged 16.6 points per game on 57% shooting. His average +/- in this stretch is +19 as well. Also shoutout to Tyson and Steele bumping heads while pressing on Red.