Geneva meets challenge, proves it can play with anyone

The setup for the media at the McDonald's Shootout Saturday gave us great courtside seats to watch Geneva's thoroughly impressive 66-61 win over Hillcrest.

It also gave us an opportunity to hear just what the Hillcrest fans, sitting directly behind us, thought of the proceedings.

Which considering how fast the Hillcrest coaches and players exited Willowbrook - leaving at least five newspapers without postgame comments - at least those fans provided a little insight into what the Hawks thought of the Vikings.

Respect certainly is a word that means a lot to the Geneva program, mainly because its schedule makes it a little hard to earn it. Despite 47 straight regular-season wins, it seems like there's a bit of a chip on their shoulders.

And those Hillcrest fans probably summed up what any skeptic was thinking. It didn't take more than two possessions to hear a fan yell to their team, "Keep pushing it. They can't keep up with you!"

Can't keep up? That might be the perception. It couldn't be further from the truth, which that same fan realized before halftime.

Midway through the second quarter, after either another Kat Yelle layup or Lauren Wicinski offensive rebound or steal by Sammy Scofield or Ashley Santos, the fan shouted to his Hawks after they grabbed a defensive board, "Slow it up, slow it up!"

From the overconfident, almost arrogant belief your team is going to run Geneva out of the gym to realizing the opposite is true. And from that point on, while the fans certainly pulled for the Hawks to get back in the game, there also seemed to be that healthy respect that their team is facing a Geneva squad that really can play.

"We knew this was going to be our true test of where we stand," Geneva's Lauren Wicinski said. "Overall we knew we had to come out fighting and work really hard to get a win."

The Vikings hope to be invited back to the Shootout next year, and with returnees like Yelle, Santos and Scofield it would be surprising if they aren't. Geneva joins St. Charles North (2009), St. Charles East (2007) and West Aurora (2000) as local teams who have played at the 20th annual event.

"It is just a great opportunity," Geneva coach Gina Nolan said. "We are honored we got invited to come here. It is a great atmosphere, it is great for our girls all the work and effort they put in to be put on the same stage as all these other teams."

Playing Hillcrest with a true star in Uniquah Hampton certainly is the kind of matchup the Vikings don't see in the Western Sun Conference.

The schedule obviously is largely out of the Vikings' control, and the players said they'd prefer more challenges like Hillcrest, even if it might mean a loss or two throughout the season. While the 5-point margin Saturday was the closest of the year, I'd say this same game is the best evidence of how far this Geneva team can go.

"We definitely like playing competition," Scofield said. "Yeah, it's fun to blow teams out, but we need to work out on stuff and down the line the games are going to get harder and harder so we have to play more competitive teams."

Maybe the only thing that could have made Saturday better would be if it happened on Feb. 16 instead of Jan. 16. It would be nice to have this type of test on the eve of the state tournament, instead of returning to the slew of 30-point, 40-point and larger margins that figure to come the next month.

But like I said, that's out of the players' control. All they can control is what happens on the court, and they couldn't have looked better Saturday.

"I wish we had close games all the time with good teams because that's where we improve," Yelle said. "It helps us figure out what kind of team we are."

A team that looks like we could see them in March in Normal once again.

jlemon@dailyherald.com