Geneva 53, Wheaton Warrenville South 26

To have one or two starters finish scoring in double-digits is nice, but to have 4 of 5 is even better.

Emily Hinchman, Taylor Whitley, Lauren Wicinski and Kat Yelle, all starters on Geneva's girls basketball team, tallied at least 10 points apiece in the Vikings' 53-26 win over Wheaton Warrenville South Thursday in the first day of the Benet/Naperville North Holiday Tournament.

"It was nice to see Lauren put some points on the board. She really got after it in the second half and did a nice job," Geneva coach Gina Nolan said. "Taylor is always going to get her points, but it's nice to see Emily shoot the ball. She can be dangerous driving to the basket...and Kat has been scoring a lot from the free throw line, which is nice to see."

This was a good first win for the Vikings, who are new to this tournament. With the win, they improved to 10-0 overall.

"(The win) gives us a lot of confidence," said Yelle, who finished with a team-high 12 points. "We should be prepared to play anyone after tonight's game."

Geneva took its first double-digit lead as early as the end of the first quarter after holding the Tigers to just a field goal and free throw. By the break, the Vikings led 27-9 and outscored Wheaton Warrenville South 13-6 in the second quarter.

"Holding them to 9 points, I was really happy with that," Nolan said. "From that defense, we created a lot of offense."

"We are a good defensive team," added Yelle, who recorded 5 of the Vikings' 18 steals.

Geneva began the second half on an 11-0 run, led by the 4 starters. The run was broken on a bucket from Katie Ottolin, only to have it start back up again with the Vikings' 14-0 run for a 23-4 third quarter.

The Vikings' largest lead of the game was 53-13 after a conventional three-point play from Sam Dudman in the opening minute of the fourth quarter. That was the only three points Geneva scored, as Wheaton Warrenville South scored the final 13 points. Back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers from sophomore Annie Shain in the final minute and a half was the highlight of the quarter for the Tigers (2-7 overall). She led the way with 9 points.

"Geneva is a very good team," Wheaton Warrenville South coach Rob Kroehnke said. "If you are not ready to play a very good team, that's what happens to you. They do all the little things really, really well. They play really, really hard, and that's something we are trying to do."