Good week for Batavia, Vikes, ACC
Do basketball players still play around the world? Here it is, column style.
• It's a new year, and evidently new results follow.
Batavia beat Rock Island 72-56 Saturday night at the Rock Falls Shootout, improving to 9-5.
David Bryant led the way with 25 points, Ben Potter scored 18 and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Ricky Clopton's 18 points included a pair of dunks.
Their 3-0 week is a far cry from their 1-5 end to 2008, and they look poised to enjoy a much, much better season than it appeared just six days ago.
• Then again, some things don't change, like the Geneva girls basketball team making its opponents look silly.
The Vikings ran their winning streak to 17 games this week, and they did it with 39- and 40-point squeakers.
Geneva isn't just beating teams, it is burying them. Only one of those 17 games has been decided by 10 points or less. Who knew when Geneva won 44-36 over DeKalb on Dec. 12 it would be its closest game this season?
There's some teams that average 30.7 points a game, or maybe a little better. That's the margin Geneva averages winning by.
So just how good is this Geneva team? Pretty darn good. They have played three teams in the Daily Herald Top 20, beating Batavia by 19, Glenbard West by 17 and Rosary by 32.
All three teams are in the 15-20 range, so the Vikings still have yet to play the cream of the crop, but you can't blame coach Gina Nolan for trying. Geneva moved to the Naperville North/Benet tournament at Christmas to play better competition, only to find teams like Naperville North, Benet and Wheaton Warrenville South not as strong as they are most years.
So just how far can Geneva take its undefeated record? They host a 10-5 St. Charles East team next Saturday. They close the regular season with back-to-back road games at Bartlett and Batavia. But I'll channel my inner Craig Brueske to make my own prediction - the Vikings will enter regional play with an undefeated 28-0 record, and could easily be 32-0 and playing for a chance to get to state a couple weeks after that.
• Nate Drye's Aurora Central boys team is winning at a rate nearly as good as Nolan's Vikings. The Chargers also won two games this week, now 15-1.
And they still should be unbeaten; I take full blame for that defeat. Ironically, the only game the Chargers lost, to Oswego East, is also the only time I've seen them play. I would promise to stay away so the Chargers can keep winning, except I'm too excited to see if Anthony Kelly, Mike Adams and company can bring home a second straight Suburban Catholic title to a school that didn't have any before last year.
• I hate to close this way, but I'm sorry to say one of my best friends at the Daily Herald Christine Bolin is no longer with the paper. Anyone reading this who loves Tri-Cities sports probably knows Christine, a true pro on the job and an even better person away from it.
It's been a rough few days as our thoughts are with Christine. She and I worked together almost six years covering the Tri-Cities area schools. Christine always made sure to go beyond the Xs and Os and find the human element in her stories.
In an understatement like saying Geneva's athletic teams are having a fairly good year, she'll be sorely missed.
jlemon@dailyherald.com