Geneva tops Batavia for 2nd straight perfect regular season
Batavia can still stay it was the last team to beat the Geneva girls' basketball team in a Western Sun Conference contest.
The Bulldogs just can't say it happened Friday night before a large Senior Night crowd at Geneva High School that was poised to celebrate sending its team into postseason action with an extraordinary second straight undefeated season and conference title.
Senior forward Lauren Wicinski and junior point guard Kat Yelle put most of the hurt on Batavia with a stellar inside-outside game that produced a convincing 61-40 romp and vaulted Geneva (27-0, 14-0) into regional tournament action next week in a positive frame of mind.
Wicinski dominated the action near the basket, scoring a game-high 22 points and collecting 12 rebounds.
"It was pretty exciting, because it was Batavia and it was Senior Night on our home floor, our last game here," Wicinski said. "It was really nice to leave our home floor and do well in the game.
"This has been the greatest experience of my life in playing a sport and I couldn't ask for anything better."
Wicinski also couldn't have asked for teammate Yelle to do any better, as she opened things up for Wicinski by banging down five of the seven 3-point shots she took in the game to score 17 points.
"We just tried to do what we always do, and whenever Lauren's inside game is on, it is really hard to stop us," said Yelle. "I'm trying not to imagine what it will be like next year without Lauren, because I really want to get downstate again and I'm really focused on that."
Batavia (11-12, 6-7) fell behind 8-0 in the game's opening minutes, but stayed within striking distance of Geneva until late in the third quarter when a Kelsey Stone basket cut the Vikings' lead to 43-36.
A 3-point shot by Sara Fruendt rolled in and out moments later, and then Wicinski and Yelle teamed up for a 14-0 run that put the game out of reach.
"Sara had a good look on that 3-pointer, and if it goes down, who knows?" Batavia coach Tim DeBruycker said. "But they really outrebounded us all night and that really hurt us because we gave up too many second-chance points.
"They executed better than we did, but they've done that to a lot of teams," DeBruycker added. "How do you beat a team like this on their home floor? You have to take care of the ball and rebound."
Liz Barnes led Batavia with 14 points, while Stone added 10. Ashley Santos chipped in seven points, all in the second quarter, in helping Geneva open a 31-21 halftime lead.
"We couldn't quite extend the lead from time to time tonight, but Senior Night is always pretty emotional," Geneva coach Gina Nolan said. "But the kids responded really well, and all of the seniors came in early and did a nice job."
Nolan had a hard time finding words to describe the magical trip this group of Viking players has enjoyed the past two seasons.
"It all started with those losses to Batavia two years ago, and I went with some of the younger players and that nucleus just really started to gel and have just done a great job of playing together and working hard.
"I don't think we ever went into a season saying that we were going to go undefeated," Nolan said. "But we just worked hard every game, every possession, and tried not to look at the big picture.
"And they've just done a real nice job of doing that."
Geneva and Batavia may square off again in regional play next week at the St. Charles North, if Batavia can win its opening game against South Elgin. Batavia also finishes conference play Saturday night against Yorkville.