St. Charles East 86, Geneva 61

Nineteen points, 10 rebounds, 4 blocks, 3 steals -- Collin Pryor certainly caught Geneva coach Tim Pease's attention with his play Saturday night.

That production was impressive enough, slightly better than Pryor's 18.2 season scoring average.

Most eye-opening to Pease? It came in the first half.

"At halftime Colin had a stat line of a complete game," Pease said. "He had a stat line of a 32-minute game and he had only played 16. That's a good night for four quarters, he had that at the half."

Pryor finished with 29 points, Kevin Senechalle added a career-high 20 and Ryan Suits chipped in 14 as the Saints' front-line was way too much for Pease's Vikings in a convincing 86-61 win.

Pryor, Senechalle and Suits stand 6-foot-6, 6-6 and 6-4, and they combined for 63 points and 23 rebounds, or 2 more points and 2 more rebounds than the entire Geneva team.

"It was just fun to play and beat a good team," Senechalle said. "Everything was working really well. Our size helped us a lot."

It was a night of firsts for Senechalle, who notched both his first 20-point game and threw down his first dunk.

So which was better?

"Probably the 20 points," the junior said. "I didn't feel it was that great of a dunk anyways."

The Saints (9-10) scored 50 points in the first half and never let up.

That was in contrast to a week ago Saturday, when they led St. Charles North by 14 points in the first half but wound up losing by 11.

"We have lost some games earlier this year by letting up some," Suits said. "We came out and we were aggressive. We've learned when we are up to not let up, to step on people's throats."

The Saints also turned the tables from a week ago, when St. Charles North's comeback win put a little damper on the Saints' Hall of Fame night.

Geneva held its annual Hall of Fame festivities Saturday, and while the home fans enjoyed that, they didn't have much to cheer about during the game. The Saints shot a blistering 61 percent from the field in the first half to take a 50-29 lead, and didn't let up much in the second half finishing at 58.5 percent (31 of 53).

"They ran up and down the court real well, and we didn't provide much resistance," Pease said.

While the Saints were shooting lights out, the Vikings couldn't get much to drop -- other than free throws.

They hit all 9 of their free throws in the first quarter yet trailed 28-17. They finished 20 of 25 from the line, but that was more than off-set by 20 of 59 shooting from the field, including just 2 of 15 in the second quarter when the Saints extended their lead to 21 points. Geneva never drew closer than 17 in the second half.

"I think you have to credit their defense for that," Pease said. "They took us out of our comfort zone on our home floor where we had been shooting the ball pretty well. You have to tip your hats to their defense, their pressure. That's a rough combination when you are not shooting well and you are giving up basket after basket."

While the Saints' big men dominated inside, they also stood out on defense against Geneva's top two scorers. Suits harassed Alex Turnowchyk while Pryor defended Max Cary.

"We just said those two cannot get shots, cannot get looks, and they didn't," St. Charles East coach Brian Clodi said. "They were struggling because they couldn't get a look."

Zach Scott added 9 points for the Saints on three first-half 3-pointers.

Turnowchyk led Geneva with 15 points. Cary scored 12 points and had 6 steals.

Geneva fell to 14-8. The Vikings won't mind avoiding Upstate Eight teams for awhile after a week that saw them lose by 21 to Neuqua Valley and 25 to St. Charles East.

"Our goal was to get it to 10 at the fourth, chip away," Pease said. "Whatever mini-run we established, they went on a mini-run, and a greater run of their own. They do a nice job getting the ball to the basket in a hurry."

• At halftime, Geneva inducted Charles Hokonson, the late John LeFeber and Dr. Peter Temple into its Hall of Fame in their eighth annual ceremony.

Hokonson, class of 1933, was the captain of the 1932 football team and named to the all-Little Seven Conference team at center and defensive end. LeFeber stared on the Geneva football teams in the early 1970s.

Temple, class of 1981, won 19 games as quarterback for Geneva, including a 7-2 season in 1979 and an 8-1 record in 1980 when Geneva was the only team to beat eventual state champion Morris.