Yelle MVP as Geneva wins its own tournament
Memo to those looking to knock off the Geneva girls basketball team this year: Don't make the Vikings mad.
That was the overriding emotion Geneva felt trailing 25-22 at halftime Saturday against Oswego in the championship game of the 22nd annual Geneva Thanksgiving tournament.
"In the locker room we were really mad," said junior guard Kat Yelle, the tournament MVP. "We were like we can't be losing to this team, we went to state last year. We just got really pumped up and came back out with fire and ready to go."
The Vikings turned that anger into vintage Geneva up-tempo, unselfish basketball in the second half, with crisp passing leading to one high-percentage shot after another. A 21-2 run from the middle of the third quarter to the middle of the fourth broke the game open and sent Geneva on its way to a 58-43 victory.
Geneva (4-0) shot 61.5 percent from the field in the second half. Yelle led the way with 7 assists, and post players Lauren Wicinski and Kelsey Augustine also got in on the quick ball movement that continually set up easy baskets.
"They run their stuff terrifically and are well coached and have a lot of experience," Oswego coach Chad Pohlmann said. "Those girls have been in some big games. We're trying to get where they were last year. It was a good learning experience for our players."
Oswego (5-1), a sectional finalist in Class 3A a year ago, outscored Geneva 17-9 in the second quarter to build its 3-point halftime lead. Sophomore Paige Harmon gave the Vikings fits with 14 points while Geneva did itself no favors by shooting 3 of 9 at the free-throw line and watching its offense not run nearly as smoothly as usual.
"We weren't running through the plays all the way," Yelle said. "We were jacking up shots. That was our big problem."
Geneva coach Gina Nolan switched to man-to-man in the second half. Kelsey Augustine responded by holding Harmon to 2 second-half points, which didn't come until 1:56 remained.
With the score tied at 32 and 4:06 left in the third quarter, the Ohio University-bound Yelle unleashed a flurry of great plays to end the quarter. She scored on a backdoor on a pass from Augustine, she took a feed from Sam Scofield for a 3-pointer, she hit a free throw, she stole the ball and scored, then she delivered a perfect pass to Sam Dudman that put Geneva ahead 42-32 entering the fourth quarter.
"When they took the lead we got down and got mentally out of it a little bit," Pohlmann said.
Augustine hit a short jumper to start the fourth quarter. Lauren Wicinski took a feed from Yelle, then another from Scofield for two straight baskets, before Wicinski found Augustine for a score.
Wicinski, who joined Yelle on the all-tournament team, led all scorers with 19 points. Yelle scored 12, Scofield 9 and Ashley Santos 8. Augustine grabbed 9 rebounds and Yelle 4 steals.
"I thought our defense made the difference and spurred on our offense," Nolan said. "We finally played our basketball in the second half offensively.
"We just challenged them at halftime to play hard and play together and they did that great."