Geneva gets back in fast lane

Playing an up-tempo style is nothing unusual for Kat Yelle.

In fact, it's exactly what Yelle and her Geneva girls basketball teammates want to do on a night-in, night-out basis.

The Vikings (10-3) certainly followed the game plan Wednesday night, hitting Naperville North (5-8) with a 24-point first quarter and 42-point opening half on the way to a 76-68 victory in the fourth of five games at the Naperville North/Benet Academy Holiday Tournament in Naperville.

“We love the fast pace,” said Yelle, who scored 14 of her 21 points in the first half and also finished with 7 assists. “The faster (pace) the better for us.”

Junior Ashley Santos poured in a game-high 24 points with 15 rebounds, 4 steals and a pair of blocked shots, while senior guard Sammy Scofield added 16 points and 8 assists as the Vikings won their fourth straight game — all coming during the round-robin tournament.

“I like how we're passing the ball up the court and trying to play as fast as we can,” said Vikings assistant coach Tim Pease. “We understand that by doing that there might be a turnover here or there and that can be frustrating but at the same time, we feel that that pace is most beneficial to them.”

The Santos-Yelle-Scofield trio combined for 39 of the Vikings' first-half points as they opened a 19-point lead at one point midway through the second quarter. Geneva led 42-26 at the intermission.

After the Vikings extended their lead to 44-26 on their opening possession of the second half, the Huskies mounted a furious comeback that included a pair of three-point plays from Zoe Swift (16 points).

Swift's steal and layup capped a 14-2 surge that narrowed the Vikings' lead to 46-40 midway through the third quarter.

“We get up and we think we can coast the rest of the game,” said Yelle. “We stop playing as hard as we had been playing. That's been a problem for us in past games as well. We need to play intense the whole way through and finish it out.”

Geneva rattled off 7 unanswered points in a 41-second span to extend its lead from 6 to 53-40 before the Huskies' Shannon Bushman (23 points) connected on a pair of 3-pointers to make it 57-51 heading into the final period.

Yelle's third 3-pointer of the game pushed the Vikings' lead back up to double digits at 64-54 with 5:00 left, but the Huskies didn't go away quietly.

Naperville North got as close as 70-65 with 1:58 remaining on a three-point play from Caitlin Knoll (9 points) and Bushman's fifth 3-pointer of the night before the Vikings hit 6-of-7 free throws down the stretch to finally put the game out of reach.

“Boy, they shot the ball well behind that 3-point line,” Pease said of the Huskies, who were 7-of-17 from beyond the 3-point arc. “In the second half, they did a much better job of handling our pressure. They did a nice job with our traps, they moved the ball up the court and found their shooters.”

Geneva concludes tourney play at 7:30 p.m. Thursday against Glenbard West.