Ratay, defense spark Geneva

Combining a surprise with a staple added up to a Geneva sweep.

The surprise - the timely emergence of Michael Ratay's 3-point shot - and the staple - hard-nosed defense - gave the Vikings their second regular-season win over Batavia, and also put themselves in position for a Western Sun title.

A nearly packed gym at Geneva, split evenly, roared on every play down the stretch, the final one a David Bryant 3-pointer with 3 seconds remaining that was off target, giving Geneva a 40-38 victory.

"I give a tremendous amount of credit to our defense," Geneva coach Phil Ralston said. "We forced them into taking bad shots. Guys got on the floor and rebounded when they needed to."

Geneva (18-6, 9-3) moved into a share of the Western Sun Conference lead when DeKalb blew out Glenbard South Friday. The Raiders (15-6, 9-3) and Geneva are tied, with DeKalb (13-10, 8-3) a half game back.

All the top four teams are finished playing each other, so it is going to take someone in the bottom half of the conference pulling an upset to deny a three-way tie. The loss dealt Batavia (14-7, 7-4) a crushing blow in its bid for a fourth straight title.

"Every time we play it seems to come down to the wire, it seems to be a close game," Batavia senior Ben Potter said. "It's always tough playing Geneva, they are a great team, it's always tough playing in here, it is really loud. Tonight I thought we played better than we did the first time (a 50-39 loss) but came up short."

The game featured 8 ties and 6 lead changes, the final coming on Jeremy D'Amico's 2 free throws with 44.5 seconds left. Batavia had two chances to go ahead but Potter and Bryant misfired.

Bryant had given the Bulldogs a 34-32 lead with 6:18 on a 3-pointer off a feed from Ricky Clopton. It was Batavia's first lead since 13-12 in the second quarter, as Geneva suceeded at playing the game at its grind-it-out-style.

Sean Grady's drive tied the game at 34, then Batavia took two more leads - the first on Bryant's assist to Levi Maxey and the second on Potter's jumper. That made it 38-36 with 4:51 remaining, and the Bulldogs didn't score again.

"It was a tough game, they played hard, and we just had shots go in and out," Batavia center Alex Berg said. "It's not like we played bad, they played bad. It was a hard-fought game, low-scoring, good defense and they came out on top."

Ratay put the Vikings in postion for the win with his surprise shooting. His three 3s matched his total for the first 22 games. His 11 points were 10 more than his 1.9 season scoring average.

"They didn't respect his shot and he knocked it down," Ralston said. "He came up big. He had good looks at the basket and he knows he has the green light to shoot it. It's nice to see it happening outside of practice."

Ratay said it has taken awhile to get his basketball legs after his All-State football season.

"I like going out there playing with all my friends, helping the team," Ratay said. "The first time I was out there (this year, I was thinking) 'What am I doing out here?' As the year went on I got more used to it."

Ratay also joined Sean Grady, D'Amico and Christian Frederking hounding Bryant into a rough 4-of-18 shoting night.

"We rotated guys on him," Ralston said. "Any time they ran ball screeens we did a great job of switching on it hard and not letting him get what he wanted. By and large our kids did a tremendous job on him, and he is one of the best players we've gone up against all season."

D'Amico led Geneva with 12 points and 6 rebounds. Tyler Scofield also grabbed 6 boards and hit his only basket to beat the first-quarter buzzer, tying the game at 9.

Ricky Clopton led Batavia with a double-double, 10 points and 10 rebounds. Bryant also scored 10 and had 7 boards.

Batavia returns to action at 6 p.m. tonight hosting Yorkville.

"For us, this one is done," Batavia coach Jim Roberts said. "Without question this was a tough loss but you have to move on."