Four years ago, when Natalie Warner arrived at Batavia, coach Kevin Jensen didn’t quite know what to do with her.
Should she get more playing time at the lower levels or should she be on the varsity?
Warner made that decision for him.
“She’s just a gutsy performer,” Jensen said of Warner. “She’s been that way since she was a freshman. She played her way into playing on varsity as a freshman.
“It was like, ‘All right, she’s kind of working her way in.’ The more and more she kept playing, she just does positive basketball things pretty much nonstop.”
The 5-foot-6 senior guard was pretty tough to stop Tuesday night, scoring 11 points and hitting three 3-pointers for the Bulldogs in a 43-39 DuKane Conference win over host St. Charles North.
Hallie Crane paced Batavia (19-8, 9-2) with 12 points, while Samantha Jansey added nine points off the bench. Sydney Johnson led all scorers with 20 points for the North Stars (20-7, 6-5).
Batavia was cold from the field in the first half, but the Bulldogs’ defense prevented St. Charles North from putting together a long scoring run and kept the game close until shots started to fall.
Two of the 3-pointers by Warner came early in the third quarter as Batavia finally wrested control.
“Our defense gives us so much energy,” Warner said. “Once we make those energy plays, it helps us be more confident on offense where we can hit shots or get it to the middle to kick it out for threes.”
After missing two games with an ankle injury, Warner returned earlier than expected and made five 3-pointers in a 48-24 win over Wheaton North. That trend continued Tuesday.
“She has a knack for hitting them in big moments,” Jensen said. “She’s a threat. You can tell she’s a threat because you could hear (St. Charles North coach Mike Tomczak) instructing his girls to not guard anybody in the middle.
“If we got the ball to the middle, he’s yelling at them to get to the shooters because that’s kind of what we do. For better or worse, we’re going to shoot a bunch of them.”
Warner’s impact on Batavia is noticeable. The two games she missed — at Lake Park and at Peoria Notre Dame — were both losses. Since she returned, the Bulldogs are 3-0.
“I thought I was going to be out for a little bit longer because they wanted me to rest, but I just taped it up and got back in there,” Warner said. “As we get closer to the playoffs, I want to be healthy. I’m just glad I can get myself back into these games and get ready for the playoffs.”
It was the second straight narrow loss to a team ahead of the North Stars in the conference standings. The fact they were in the games until the end shows growth from a young team.
“This was a game all the way,” Tomczak said. “I think we established against (St. Charles) East and Batavia if we can be physical and board, make a couple shots, I think we can be tough.
“We’re still learning.”
Warner knows with her experience playing in big games the past few seasons that her teammates look up to her. She’s more than happy to keep showing them what winning basketball looks like.
“I try to bring as much energy as I can because I can see when we start to get down on ourselves and people start to get in their heads a little bit,” Warner said. “I just try to pick everyone up.
“I think they do that for me too. I think we use our defense as our identity to pick us up and get us moving on offense. I think we just work well together.”
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
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