St. Charles East secures first DuKane Conference title with lopsided victory over Batavia

BATAVIA — St. Charles East coach Katie Claussner has preached to her team the importance of creating their own legacy.

And with a chance to clinch the program’s first-ever DuKane Conference title with a win over Batavia on Thursday night, the second-year coach told her team to further cement their legacy.

Apparently, that message was heard loud and clear from her players.

The Saints dominated the game on both sides of the ball, leading to a lopsided 58-24 victory over the Bulldogs to secure St. Charles East’s first DuKane Conference title since joining back in 2018.

“This is just something that the girls have been working so hard for since the very beginning,” Claussner said. “It’s so awesome that they get to experience this, especially on a win against a fantastic team like Batavia.”

The conference title is also the first for the program since St. Charles East and St. Charles North split off back in 2000.

Leading the way for the Saints (22-6 overall, 12-0 DuKane) was Brooklyn Schilb. After only shooting 1-of-5 from the floor in the first half, the freshman was perfect in the second half and finished with 17 points to go with seven rebounds and three assists.

“Her ability to just keep her cool in games is incredible,” Claussner said. “She’s confident enough to knock down the next shot. So the fact that she has that mentality as a freshman is just so amazing.”

Also stepping up in the game for the Saints was senior Alyse Price. The senior finished with a season-high 13 points thanks to a dominant game in the paint.

“When we actually find her in the paint, which admittedly we don’t do enough, it’s really hard to defend us,” Claussner said. “She got going in the paint and she’s been knocking down her free throws. But even if she doesn’t have a look, we have those outside shooters to help her out.”

Price wasn’t just a problem on the scoreboard, as she also tallied 12 rebounds for a double-double in the contest. Her efforts helped the Saints in out-rebounding the Bulldogs 41-15 in the contest.

“Before the game we had a pregame talk about not letting up and pushing on the gas, especially because” Price said. “But after that, I was just like ‘I’m going to go off tonight,' and I just pushed that gas pedal.”

On the flip side, Batavia (19-9, 9-3) just could not find its footing on the floor throughout the entire contest, with the team facing cold shooting and foul trouble the majority of the night.

Of the 12 players that saw reasonable minutes for the Bulldogs, seniors Hallie Crane (7 points) and Kaidyn King (4 points) were the only two players to make multiple baskets on the night.

“It was just not a good night for the Bulldogs,” Batavia coach Kevin Jensen said. “The result isn’t the worry, it’s that what got us to the result was totally out of the norm. That’s the tough pill to swallow. If we do the things that we prep on and that we have been capable of been doing all year, whatever the result is, we’ll feel a little differently.

“We’ve got to wash our hands of this one, get better tomorrow and go out and play again Saturday.”