Batavia holds off Geneva in the end, 42-39

While a 15-15 halftime score would never indicate it, the latest Batavia-Geneva clash did have something in common with an NBA game - that old saying about just watching the final two minutes.

That way you could have seen Geneva complete a fourth-quarter rally from 8 points down, taking its first lead of the second half on JP Landry's corner 3-pointer with 50 seconds to go after Landy's own hustle gave the Vikings possession.

Then you could have watched Batavia pass on a timeout, instead getting a confident drive from Jesse Coffey through the Geneva defense for a go-ahead layup with 27 seconds left.

Geneva's final two possessions ended on missed 3-pointers, including one at the buzzer that allowed Batavia to split the season series with a 42-39 victory.

You not only could have seen all that in the final two minutes, you would have missed the first 30 which produced such a low-scoring struggle it had both coaches shaking their heads.

"I don't know if we set basketball back on its ear for a bit," quipped Batavia's Jim Roberts.

"The third quarter was possibly one of the most abysmal performances I've seen from our team in the entire time I've been in Geneva," said Geneva's Phil Ralston.

Batavia (14-7, 7-4) snapped its three-game losing streak while pulling even with Geneva (15-9, 8-4) in the loss column in the race for second place behind DeKalb in the Western Sun.

"This was definitely a win we needed coming off the losing streak we were on," Coffey said. "It was a great team win I thought. We had all sorts of guys chipping in with shots down the stretch."

Geneva led 12-9 after a back-and-forth first quarter, then went ice cold and hit just 1 of 16 shots from the field in the second.

It was the quality of shots that bothered Ralston.

"A lot of those shots were rushed shots, they weren't strong shots at the basket," Ralston said. "They were fadeaway shots, they were not good, athletic shots. As many good things as I thought we did defensively we were that bad on offense."

Batavia switched to a man-to-man defense halfway through the second quarter that helped slow the Vikings. Sophomore forward Cole Gardner came off the bench to score all 6 of the Bulldogs' second-quarter points that tied the game at halftime.

It got so hard for the offenses to score that two of Batavia's first three baskets in the third quarter came when the Bulldogs shot an air ball but grabbed the offensive rebound for a putback. Levi Maxey scored the first basket and Elliot Vaughn the second, giving Batavia a 21-16 lead.

Vaughn, who led both teams with 10 rebounds, said the rough play made it hard for both teams to score.

"It was physical. The refs weren't calling anything. It's kind of hard to when there's a lot of bumping and stuff," Vaughn said.

Batavia senior Ricky Clopton, averaging 18.6 points a game, scored with 2:35 left in the third quarter for his first points of the game. It was the start of a strong finish for Clopton, who made all 6 of his free throws in the fourth quarter after being guarded much of the night by Michael Santacaterina.

"Santa did a tremendous job defensively, JP had a great game tonight, Nolan came alive in the fourth quarter and did some nice things but it's not a collective team effort and that's why we lost the game tonight," Ralston said.

Clopton's jumper with 5:22 remaining gave the Bulldogs their largest lead, 34-26. A pair of 3-pointers by Block pulled Geneva within 36-34, then the Vikings tied the game when Landry found Block on a backdoor cut with 2:03 left.

Batavia held a short-lived 38-36 lead on Clopton's free throws. Landry raced out of bounds to save an offensive rebound, then got himself back on the court and took a feed from Block for a 3-pointer that put the Vikings ahead 39-38.

Coffey's drive followed and turned into the game-winner, the last of several aggressive penetrating moves by the junior who normally is known for his 3-point touch.

"They (Geneva) play really hard man-to-man and sometimes they are up on you so you can't shoot so taking it to the hole is something we have to do against a team like this," Coffey said.

After Clopton's 2 free throws with 5.9 seconds left made it 42-39, the Bulldogs tried to take fouls and prevent a 3. Block nearly burned Batavia when he let a long 3 fly and was fouled. Officials ruled the foul before the shot, giving the Vikings the ball out of bounds with 2.9 left. Block's 30-footer at the buzzer was just off.

"I think they got the call right," said Coffey, who took the foul. "You can't really call it a shooting foul. It was a smart play (by Block). I was just really happy they didn't call it a shot."

Coffey and Adam LeTouneau both added 8 points for Batavia while all 9 of Landry's points came on 3-pointers.

"I'm proud of our kids for hanging in there," Roberts said. "I think it was a grind-it-out game on both ends of the court."