Handing out a few holiday tournament grades

With parents who both became college professors and a sister who also went into teaching, I guess I'm the odd one in the family for my career choice.

Since teaching does run in my bloodlines, I couldn't miss the chance to hand out a few grades from the last couple weeks of holiday basketball madness. I'll start with the girls today and be back with the boys next week.

A: Geneva.

What else can you say about the Vikings? Other than two losses in two nights last March in Normal at the Class 4A state tournament, Geneva has won 46 straight games.

Ten of those wins over the past two seasons came at the Benet/Naperville North Holiday Tournament. Coach Gina Nolan moved Geneva from Oswego to this tournament last year to play some larger schools, yet the Vikings haven't missed a beat.

Geneva (14-0 this year) did find itself in a couple close games, including a rare 16-12 halftime deficit in the tournament opener against Wheaton Warrenville South.

The Vikings stormed back to win that game 49-34, and from there they beat Benet by 19, York by 16, Naperville North by 32 and Glenbard West by 27. While the tournament displayed another example of Geneva's team play, senior forward Lauren Wicinski came on especially strong averaging 17 points and 13 rebounds in the final four games.

The Vikings certainly made a believer out of Glenbard West coach Mike Hofland.

"Geneva just played solid basketball and that's what we're trying to get to," Hofland said. "They are very talented and very unselfish. I enjoy watching them play and I just wish we could have given them a better game."

If there's anything to be concerned about it might be the lack of teams at its level Geneva will see between now and the postseason. Of the Vikings' 12 second-half games, 9 are against Western Sun teams they have been crushing, another is against Ashley Santos' former team Bartlett and another against 4-10 Neuqua Valley.

Perhaps Geneva's best chance to see where it stands against the type of teams it will have to beat in sectional and supersectional games comes Jan. 18 when it plays Hillcrest at the Willowbrook Shootout.

B+: St. Charles East, Rosary.

St. Charles East got a look at the team that gave Geneva its toughest game in last year's run to state, Elk Grove, who cruised to a 60-41 win over the Saints in the third-place game at Wheaton North's Falcon Classic.

The fact the Saints (9-6) were in the third-place game at all came as a surprise, considering their draw and their opener against top-seed and three-time defending tournament champion Hinsdale Central.

St. Charles East's 38-29 win over the Red Devils shows just how much potential the Saints have in the second half of the season. An Upstate Eight championship is within their reach, but they also saw first hand what it's going to take to get there when Waubonsie Valley took them down in the semifinals at Wheaton North by 6.

Like the Saints, Rosary played in a third-place game. The Royals (12-4) defeated Glenbard East to take third at Oswego, though after winning the last two titles there coach Dave Beebe's team entered the tournament aiming for another championship.

"We look at this as a halfway point," Beebe said. "I told them we're 11-4 (now 12-4) and most teams in this tournament and all over the place that would be dying to be 11-4 and I'm not content with that. We all set goals to be a great team. Granted the four teams we lost to are very good teams. Three of those four games we gave way. We have set goals to do better in the second half."

The Royals showed their potential in building a 17-0 lead against the Rams. Now they want to play at that same level for 32 minutes against the best teams on their schedule.

"It's going well," senior forward Breanne Maryanski said. "I think we need to push ourselves and get better though. Just turn it up."

C+: Batavia.

The Bulldogs (5-6) went 1-3 at the same Oswego tournament to finish sixth. Coach Tim DeBruycker's squad knew they had their work cut out for themselves this year after heavy graduation losses and are now 2-6 in their last 8 games.

The Bulldogs have that same 1-3 record in the Western Sun as they did at Oswego. They start the second half against Geneva Saturday night.

"We've got some work to do," DeBruycker said. "We've got to get healthy first and then find our offense continuity. At times we look fine but other times we don't. Defensively I think we are OK. But offensively we struggle for too long of periods."

DeBruycker said better ball movement would go a long way toward helping Batavia put more points on the scoreboard.

"We run the plays OK but when the going gets tough we need someone to make the move and keep running the offense until something comes open," DeBruycker said. "I think sometimes when we start not hitting shots we get too one dimensional with too much one-on-one and then we're not getting any second shots. That's what we have to fix."

One bright spot for Batavia at Oswego was senior Sara Fruendt, who was selected to the all-tournament team. Another was the play of Hanna Schweigert, who moved into the starting lineup and responded with a couple impressive games.

"She's not afraid to go to the basket," DeBruycker said. "We need to find a junior who can step in. At least initially she is leading that pack."

Incomplete: The North Stars (12-5) got off to a good start at Dundee-Crown beating Mother McAuley before a loss to Prospect and then a win over Fremd - the type of up-and-down but mostly positive way things have gone in Colleen Brennan's first season as coach. St. Charles North concludes tournament play today in the fifth-place game against Naperville Central.

"There's a few we shouldn't have lost and we did but it all comes with playing," North Stars center Dana Sibley said. "I'm definitely satisfied with the way the season is going."

Sibley said win or lose the North Stars are going to be better in the long run for this stretch of four games in five days against some top-flight competition at the always-tough Charger Classic. And they are doing it with a shorter rotation than many area teams employ.

"It's tough especially in high school you don't have this much of a schedule crammed in right way," Sibley said of the busy stretch. "It will bring us closer together and we'll really have to pull each other up.

"We do get tired but we really run in practice so I think that helps because in the fourth quarter we'll in better shape than our opponents usually."

Brennan echoed that view about the quality type of teams the North Stars are facing.

"Bring it. We're excited about it," Brennan said. "It's such great competition and when you have to learn how to play ball, there's no way to prepare for each team individually, you go out there and play basketball. Good fundamental offense and defense works for every team. Hustle, hard work, blocking out works against any team."

jlemon@dailyherald.com