Evanston blows out Geneva

If there's a silver lining for Geneva following a 58-37 lopsided loss to Evanston Saturday in the opening round of Montini's Christmas Tournament, it's history is on its side.

Two years ago Geneva also lost its opening game at Montini. The Vikings rebounded to win their final three games and win the consolation championship - then stayed hot the second half of the season all the way to the Class 4A state tournament.

Geneva (7-2) was looking for any bit of good news it could find following an off night when not much of anything went right. The Vikings turned the ball over 13 times in the first half to fall behind 23-20, then missed their first 11 shots of the third quarter while Evanston (11-2) went on a 15-0 run to break the game open.

"We know going into this tournament we're going against the best of the best," Vikings coach Sara Meadows said. "I told the girls this is exactly what we want to do, I mean not lose by 20 but we want to be playing teams like this to grow. But if we don't learn from it it's a waste of time for us. We have to get better as a team."

Evanston never trailed. The Wildkits made life tough on the Vikings with their quickness and physical play.

"If I get through to this group about selling out on the defensive end, we're athletic enough, we can cover, we can give a lot of teams trouble," Evanston coach Elliot Whitefield said. "Most of the girls teams aren't used to seeing a defense that sort of plays like a guys' defense. I want us to be that aggressive, physical."

Grace Loberg scored 7 points for Geneva in the opening quarter to keep the Vikings within 15-12, and she added 4 more in the second quarter. Margaret Whitley assisted a cutting Maddy Yelle for a basket that kept Geneva within 3 points at halftime.

Leighah-Amori Wool, one of five juniors in Evanston's starting lineup, opened the third quarter with a 3-point play. The Vikings didn't score until Whitley's drive with 1:03 left in the quarter, and by that time they trailed 38-22.

While the Vikings couldn't buy a basket on their end, they gave up several easy ones to Evanston when Geneva pressed and nobody got back.

"I don't know how to explain that," Meadows said. "Those are things we never do. You are trying so hard on one end and maybe you forget the other end. Just mental breakdowns when things aren't going smoothly. We have to be tougher than that."

Evanston's biggest lead came at 54-27 midway through the fourth quarter. Geneva made just 4 of 24 field goal attempts in the second half and shot 26.7 percent (12 of 45) for the game.

"I think if some of our outside shots fall, maybe four or them, I think it's a different game," Meadows said. "It gives us a little more confidence. We just struggled a little offensively from them the outside."

Loberg and Whitley both scored 14 to lead the Vikings, and Loberg grabbed 11 rebounds. No other player had more than 3 points.

Savannah Norfleet topped the Wildkits with 20 points, Wool had 14 and Allysah Boothe 10.