Little bit of everything
Geneva came to a packed Batavia gym Friday night and won 50-39, and now the Vikings hope to play well enough this year to get back to Batavia.
"We told our kids before the game, Batavia is a regional site, we could certainly be playing for a regional final, we hope to be playing for a regional final, in an atmosphere like this," Geneva coach Phil Ralston said. "We told the kids, treat this game like it's a regional final, show us what you are able to do."
Geneva (8-1, 4-1) showed a lot, including that it can A) play defense, B) rebound, C) control the tempo and D) execute a highly efficient offensive attack.
Basically, everything except make free throws. The Vikings hit 11 of 22, which didn't mean much in a game Geneva led 10-2 after one quarter, 32-23 at halftime, and other than a David Bryant-led rally in the third quarter that briefly cut the gap to 4, by double figures almost the entire fourth quarter.
"Our press slowed them down," said Jeremy D'Amico, who tied Christian Frederking for Geneva scoring honors with 16 points. "They had a few bad shots and we came down and capitalized."
D'Amico and Frederking took turns leading Geneva's offense, with D'Amico scoring 12 points in the first half and Frederking 14 in the second. The Vikings shot over 50 percent from the floor in every quarter, finishing 18 of 29.
"We knew coming out they were going to guard Jeremy hard and we were just looking for other guys to step up," Frederking said. "A lot of us did a good job. I was just trying to be aggressive."
Nobody on Batavia (5-2, 1-2) could get anything going except for Bryant, who scored 25 of the team's 39 points, including 19 of their 25 in the second half.
His quick start in the third quarter brought Batavia within 25-21, but a 3-pointer from Rob Tauscher and baskets from Sean Grady and Frederking rebuilt Geneva's lead to 32-23.
"When they made that run, to see our kids have the composure to make sure we got back to what we do our best and controlling that game, that says a lot about the composure of our kids to not lose our heads when things were not going our way," Ralston said.
Batavia center Alex Berg's basket in the final seconds gave him 4 points, the only Bulldog besides Bryant who scored more than 2.
"We never got in a rthym, I credit Geneva with that," Batavia coach Jim Roberts said. "Early I think we rushed some things and then became stagnant."
The Bulldogs will try to bounce back next week at the Elgin Holiday Tournament, which they have won two of the last three years and finished in the top three the last four years.
They open at 5 p.m. Monday with a Fremd team that is 1-7, having just won its first game Friday, but whose first seven losses came to teams with a combined 7 losses.
"Our guys are down but it's a situation where we get right back at it tomorrow morning and then we go into four games at Elgin," Roberts said.