Yelle scores 20 as Geneva tops St. Charles North
It's hard enough to beat the Geneva girls basketball team at full strength, so imagine the uphill battle St. Charles North faced Friday at the 22nd annual Geneva Thanksgiving tournament.
The North Stars, already with Jen Bell sidelined with acute bronchitis, saw both Kiley Hackbarth and Dana Sibley on the bench in foul trouble much of the game.
Geneva wasn't thrilled with its own play, though the result - a 45-32 win - puts the Vikings (3-0) right where they expected to be in Saturday's championship game at 2:30 p.m. against Oswego (5-0).
"It was a weird tempo of the game," Geneva coach Gina Nolan said. "We just seemed a little out of sorts, a little flat. Credit St. Charles North, their defense probably contributed to it."
St. Charles North (2-1) will play Rosary (4-1) for third place. Coach Colleen Brennan was unsure if she would have Bell, who just became sick Thanksgiving, back.
"We had a lot of things going against us and we came out a 13-point ballgame which is pretty good," Brennan said.
Sibley scored on a feed from Sydney Russell to start the scoring. Sibley's putback basket made it 4-2, St. Charles North's last lead of the game.
Sibley picked up her second foul with 3:29 left in the first quarter and the game tied at 4. She had 6 rebounds at that point, but with Bell - a senior forward who had 16 points and 10 rebounds in the North Stars' first game - already out, the North Stars were missing their entire inside attack.
Lauren Wicinski, Kelsey Augustine, Kat Yelle and company took advantage. Wicinski with 16 rebounds and Yelle by repeatedly scoring right under the basket without anyone to contest her shot.
Hackbarth then picked up two fouls in the first 23 seconds of the second quarter, giving her three for the game, and the Rhode Island recruit sat out the final 7:37 of the first half. Geneva went on an 11-3 run after Sibley's second foul, then an 11-2 spurt after Hackbarth's third foul, to lead 28-13 at halftime.
"There was a lot of foul trouble in there that really changed the dynamics of the game," Brennan said.
St. Charles North outscored Geneva 19-17 in the second half, pulling as close as 35-25 early in the fourth quarter.
"We played sloppy as a team," Yelle said. "We weren't in sync. We can do better."
Yelle scored nearly half Geneva's points, finishing with 20; Augustine was next with 6. Myra Yelle's 5 points and 3 steals and a 3-pointer from Katelyn Allen provided solid contributions from the Vikings' bench.
Sibley led the North Stars with 11 points and 10 rebounds followed by Taylor Russell's 8 points.
Nolan is hoping to see her team pick up the pace Saturday.
"St. Charles North took us out of our running game, they hustled back on defense, so hopefully we can get that going tomorrow," Nolan said. "It should be a good battle."